Alert after device is found near PSNI base
Dissident republicans launched a pipe-bomb attack yesterday on a Craigavon police station, days after warning of an escalation in their terrorist campaign.
The device was discovered during a security alert close to Brownlow station early yesterday. The area around the station and a community centre were sealed off for several hours while Army bomb experts examined the scene.
Brownlow PSNI station is not open to the public but the local neighbourhood police team currently operates from there.
UUP MLA Jo-Anne Dobson said those who planted the pipe bomb “succeeded only in endangering human life and causing a huge inconvenience” to anyone caught up in the security alert.
Alliance councillor for the area Conrad Dixon said that the local community want an end to these types of attacks on police.
A number of homes also had to be evacuated and several roads closed in Belfast yesterday following a security alert in the Upper Lisburn Road area which turned out to be a hoax . Police received reports of “suspicious objects” at a commercial premises in the area. Meanwhile, nothing suspicious was found at a second alert at Queensway, Dunmurry, which also prompted road closures.
Last week a group claiming to be a coalition of dissident republican paramilitary groups calling themselves the IRA, threatened to intensify attacks on security forces and other British-related targets.
