Coffee-jar bomb found at police station in North
The North's public was tonight urged to help end dissident republican violence after a so-called coffee-jar bomb was found at a police station.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed a device had been discovered at the New Barnsley station in west Belfast.
It did not explode but it is understood it was a viable explosive device packed into a coffee jar.
Alex Attwood of the nationalist SDLP condemned the incident and said it represented an escalation in the level of threat posed by dissidents opposed to the peace process.
“This development makes it all the more urgent that anyone with any information or intelligence helps the police,” said the West Belfast representative.
“The Catholic Church made a very public and loud appeal on Monday through the media that the dissident threat required a full response from the community and they were right.
“This incident confirms it. People must respond and help police.”
The device was discovered during a police search following a telephoned warning after 11pm last night. Part of the Springfield Road was closed-off during the subsequent alert.
The attack was the latest in a series of attempts to kill police officers launched by dissident republican groups over the last year.
Chief Superintendent Gary White said: “Those who have constructed this device have intended to cause serious harm and injury to my officers.
“It is appalling that in this time of progress, these attempts are still being made on officers who are out there continually trying to make a difference and trying to make the community safer.
“This small group of people are intent on causing disruption and mayhem within their own communities with no regard for anything other than their own selfish and callous motives.”
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) representative Nelson McCausland said: “The discovery that this device was viable is extremely alarming and serves to reinforce that the relevant agencies should take a zero tolerance approach to the dissident threat.
“This threat must be challenged in the strongest terms or we will be looking at fatality in the future. It is by the grace of God that no-one has been killed thus far.”
