Fire bomb discovered at NI furniture store

A fire bomb was found in a furniture store in Northern Ireland today.

The discovery at High Street premises in Newtownards, Co Down, heightened fears of a new dissident republican terror blitz.

Police said the shop was evacuated as British army explosives experts moved in to defuse the device.

It is the fifth time retail outlets in the North have been targeted this week.

A similar device was discovered in a Tesco supermarket in the town on Wednesday night.

Another fire bomb was found burned out in a neighbouring store in the Ards Shopping Centre on Easter Monday.

Devices were also planted in shops in the Forestside shopping centre in south Belfast in recent days.

One was defused but the other caused extensive damage to a Next store.