Pipe bomb made safe

Army experts have dealt with a pipe bomb discovered at the headquarters of the Northern Ireland Prison Officers’ Association in Co Down.

The device was left outside the Prison Officers’ Training College at Ballywalter Road, Millisle, overnight and made safe by technical officers.

The incident followed a series of security alerts, blamed on loyalist paramilitaries, that caused traffic chaos through parts of Belfast yesterday.

The scares have been linked to recent unrest involving loyalist inmates at Northern Ireland’s high security Maghaberry prison.

Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers’ Association said of the Millisle incident: “If they think by putting bombs outside the offices of the POA they are going to intimidate the POA, they haven’t a mission – they are just wasting their time.”