THE PSNI last night confirmed that a second dissident republican bomb was found yesterday in Belfast. The viable device was found behind a scout hall and made safe by a British army bomb crew.
On Wednesday, a bomb disposal team defused an “anti-personnel device” on Antrim Road which the PSNI believe was designed to kill police officers.
The dissident grouping Óglaigh na hÉireann told the Belfast Telegraphthat it had planted the devices. It said it was within seconds of detonating the bomb aimed at a police vehicle patrol but that it aborted the attack because a woman chanced upon the scene.
The bomb alerts caused major disruption, forcing more than 50 families to be evacuated.
PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott, who visited the area yesterday, compared those who planted the devices to the Real IRA members who exploded the bomb in Omagh in 1998 that killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins.
“The people that planted these devices have the same recklessness and the same mindset as those that brought about the Omagh tragedy,” he said.
