Reports of explosion close to border

The RUC was last night investigating reports of an explosion in the North near the border.

A loud bang was heard in the Killeavy area, near Newry, Co Down, from the direction of the Dublin-Belfast railway line.

Meanwhile, British army bomb disposal experts defused an old blast incendiary device found by workmen on wasteground near Ballymena, Co Antrim yesterday.

The device was thought to have been there for some time.