Sinn Féin: Pipe bomb found during cemetery clean-up

Sinn Féin says volunteer workers clearing up the vandalised republican plot in Milltown cemetery, west Belfast, have discovered a pipe bomb.

The party says the area has now been evacuated and the police are mounting their second operation of the day in the graveyard.

Councillor Michael Brown said the discovery adds an even more sinister element to last night’s desecration of the plot.

He said it appeared to indicate that loyalists may well have been behind the damage caused to 16 graves, including that of hunger striker Bobby Sands.