Blast close to scene of petrol bomb attack

Security forces in the North were today investigating a blast close to where three young boys died in a sectarian petrol bomb attack three years ago.

Early indications suggested the early-morning explosion, in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, was caused by a bomb, police said.

No one was hurt but several houses were evacuated as Army bomb disposal experts moved in to investigate.

The blast was heard at 4am in the predominantly loyalist Carnany Park, scene of the deaths of Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn.

The three boys,sons of a Catholic mother, were killed in July 1998 when their home was torched by a firebomb at the height of the Drumcree parades disturbances.

The new blast was believed to have happened in the area of a car at the back of a house in an enclosed yard.