16/01/2017

Explosive Device Found In West Belfast

An explosive device found during a security alert in west Belfast was "designed to kill or seriously injure police officers", according to the PSNI.

The alert, which has now ended, was on the Brians Well road area in Poleglass on Saturday, 14 January.

Army bomb experts attended the scene and declared the object to be a viable explosive device which has been taken away for forensic examination.

PSNI Chief Superintendent Chris Noble said: "We are relieved to have taken this explosive device out of circulation.

"Those who left this device have shown callous disregard for the safety of the local community and the police officers serving this community. We are extremely fortunate that no one was killed or seriously injured."

Chairman of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland, Mark Lindsay, said: "Terrorists who planted an explosive device in Poleglass are to be condemned for endangering the lives of police officers and people who live in the area. To plant a device that could kill and maim passers-by is reckless in the extreme. 

"This was a deliberate attempt to kill and those who planned it do not care who got caught up in their evil deeds. There should be no place for the bomb or gun in today's society, and those who did this deserve to be ostracised by a community that has suffered enough."

(CD/JP)

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