Bomb alert brings O’Connell Street to standstill

DUBLIN’S O’Connell Street was evacuated yesterday after the discovery of what was thought to be a pipe-bomb.

Last night, it emerged the incident may have been an accidental scare as some experts believed the device may have been a student’s engineering project.

The country’s busiest urban thoroughfare was brought to a midday standstill after the suspect device was discovered on the city to airport Aircoach service.

The driver of the bus reportedly removed the device and left it outside the garda station.

All vehicles were cleared from the street and pedestrian access was denied.

The army’s bomb disposal team raced through midday traffic to make safe the device.

A passenger on board the Aircoach bus alerted the driver to the suspicious device, left on one of the seats. The driver stopped the vehicle outside O’Connell Street Garda Station, informing officers inside the building.

Gardaí immediately called the army and an Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) team was sent out from army barracks. “The EOD officer gave it the all-clear, after the device was observed from a distance,” said an army spokesman.

The device was described as cylindrical, 10 inches in length and an inch-and-a-half in width.

Two controlled explosive actions were carried out on it. No explosives were found inside it but the pipe bomb-type object was removed by gardaí for a forensic examination at garda headquarters in Phoenix Park.

Army experts say it had a power element as well as a circuit board attached to it.

A member of the Defence Forces added: “If it was made up to look like a bomb, it certainly did. It looked very elaborate.”

However, security experts were also examining the possibility the item was not a sinister device and was in fact an engineering type instrument, left on the bus by accident.

Traffic was allowed back onto O’Connell Street just after 12.30pm yesterday, after disruption to activities on Dublin’s main thoroughfare.

Footage was being examined last night of passengers getting on at bus stops around the city and whether there were any clues as to where the device came from.

An Aircoach bus statement issued after the incident added: “The driver correctly followed emergency procedure by reporting it to the gardaí at the O’Connell Street Garda Station.”