02/03/2010

Lurgan Alert Declared 'Hoax'

A security alert in Co Armagh was this afternoon branded a hoax.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that a suspicious object discovered this morning was "an elaborate hoax" and the alert is now ended.

Earlier, the SDLP Upper Bann MLA Dolores Kelly said schoolgirls in Lurgan reported a suspicious object to her this morning.

She said: "It was opposite St Michael's Grammar School at the entrance to the Providence nuns' home.

"The girls described it as two canisters with wires attached and people living close by said it had been there since yesterday. I got in touch with the PSNI," she said.

A police spokeswoman confirmed they had received a report of a suspect object at 8am and that a probe was undertaken.

She said that officers had investigated reports of a suspicious object at Cornakinnegar Road in the town and had been able to confirm that it was an elaborate hoax.

At the weekend, a hoax device was used in Craigavon to lure the PSNI into concerted attacks on them by stone throwers and petrol bombers and follows two separate security alerts in Lurgan last week.

The incidents at Lough Road on Tuesday and at Lake Street on Wednesday were later declared elaborate hoaxes.

Last night, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after police were attacked with petrol bombs in west Belfast, although he has since been released on bail.

Police said a number of youths gathered on the Springfield road and blocked the area.

Two petrol bombs were thrown at a PSNI vehicle.

See: Riots Blight Same Area As Police Murder

(BMcC/GK)

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