RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan has returned to the police station where he began his career.

Northern Ireland's most high-ranking police officer was briefly overwhelmed when he stepped back inside the Queen Street RUC station in the commercial heart of Belfast which closes this weekend.

Sir Ronnie said: "The people I met here who shaped my career, shaped my life, set me on a path that's very important to me."

He was stationed in Queen Street for his first three years in the Royal Ulster Constabulary until he became a sergeant and was transferred to Castlereagh, east Belfast, in 1973.

Joined former colleagues

On Friday, he joined former colleagues from that era, including his former sergeant, at an informal reception inside the base whose functions are being transferred to Musgrave Street station beside the River Lagan.

The RUC has had a base on Queen Street since 1859 although it has only occupied the current station, a former children's hospital, since 1933.

Work is to begin shortly to remove the security apparatus surrounding the small listed building including a high wire fence and fortified external hut before the property is put up for sale.

Those stationed at Queen Street dealt with not only with crimes experienced in the city centre including shoplifting, car crime, break-ins and rowdiness around pubs, but also with IRA bombing and incendiary campaigns in the area.

They were also the target of direct attacks on officers, including the murder of two constables who were gunned down while on foot patrol nearly 10 years ago.

Sir Ronnie spoke of "a myriad of memories" associated with the station.

"When I joined and came here, the RUC was totally unarmed and the place was totally open to the public," he said.

"It was only a series of attacks upon us that caused us gradually to be armed and caused us to fortify our buildings.

"But most of all it's the people, not the bricks and mortar. The officers there were tremendous public servants."