DNA sample taken from phone box where Intel bomb threat originated

Gardaí have taken forensic and DNA samples from a public phone box where a caller citing Islamic State issued a bomb warning to the Kildare plant of US computer giant Intel.

Gardaí swooped on a phone box in Balbriggan, north Dublin, and secured it for forensic tests after two anonymous 999 calls were made from it at 6.20am yesterday.

Investigators are eager to determine whether the call was a prank, a real threat from an Islamic extremist, the work of a disgruntled former or current employee, or a malicious attempt to stir up hostility towards the Muslim community.

The Irish Council of Imams is holding a meeting today, at which it will discuss the Paris terror attacks and implications for Irish Muslims.

Security sources said the combination of a bomb threat, one allegedly linked to Islamic State, against a top US company, on the back of the murders in France, had heightened their concerns.

“There’s an urgency to getting to the bottom of this,” said one senior security source. “Any threat like that, particularly in the space we are in now, is taken very seriously.”

The caller warned that there were 12 bombs in Intel’s plant in Leixlip, Co Kildare, and mentioned “Islamist State”, taken to mean Islamic State.

After the calls, Intel was directed to evacuate the building and garda search teams dispatched. Local gardaí from Balbriggan Station secured the phone box. Samples were taken, including from the phone and mouthpiece.

Gardaí began to harvest local CCTV in the hope of identifying possible suspects.

Staff and builders at the 24-hour plant returned to work at 8.45am after gardaí gave the all-clear when no devices were found.

Garda Commissioner Noirín O’Sullivan briefed Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald about the threat and the wider security situation.

Shaykh Dr Umar Al-Qadri of the Al-Mustafa Islamic Cultural Centre at Blanchardstown, Dublin, said he suspected the call was an attempt to “create fear, phobia, and anger towards Muslims”.

However, he said there was a problem with extremism in Ireland and a “worrying ambiguity” among some Muslims towards the Paris attacks. He said he would push the issue at todays meeting of the Irish Council of Imams.

“There is a responsibility on the Muslim leadership to be very clear about extremism and to have an action plan to eliminate it,” said Dr Al-Qadri.

Meanwhile, an umbrella group for newsagents has said it “cannot act as a censor” after it emerged that an unknown number of the Charlie Hebdo edition containing cartoons of the prophet Mohammed will be available in Ireland.