'Loyalist' bombs found on school roof

At least half a dozen improvised bombs have been discovered on the roof of a primary school in a loyalist area of east Belfast.

More than 160 pupils and staff at the Beechfield Primary School and adjoining McArthur Nursery School were evacuated after a member of staff found one of the devices.

Army bomb disposal experts called in to defuse the device found at least five more while the children were led to safety in a nearby hall. Sinn Fein claims the devices are part of a loyalist arms cache.

A spokesman for the nationalist party claimed that the pipe bombs belonged to the loyalist Ulster Defence Association. The Beechfield Street school is near a nationalist area.

The party's east Belfast representative Joe O'Donnell said: "This is a very sinister development especially given the upsurge in UDA attacks since the split in the Ulster Democratic Party".

Meanwhile, another army bomb team is investigating what Sinn Fein said was UDA bombing attempt on a man in the Ardoyne area of the city.

Sinn Fein Assembly member Gerry Kelly said the man was reversing his car out of his driveway when a package fell off the underside of the vehicle.

He said the incident came the day after a number of taxi drivers in Ardoyne were warned by the RUC that their lives were in imminent danger from loyalists.

Three men are being questioned by police in Derry after the hijacking of a car in the loyalist Waterside area of the city last night.

An RUC spokesman said the incident was "terrorist related". The car was seized by masked men armed with batons who broke into a house at Winchester Park in the Kilfennan area and which was stopped in Drumahoe.