Escalation of bomb alerts across the province

Bomb alerts across the province, including one at Belfast International Airport,

caused widespread havoc on Wednesday.

On Wednesday August 1 at around 11am, a telephone call was made to the RUC warning of a device in a vehicle in the car park area of Belfast International Airport. Police sealed off the section and passengers were not permitted access to the three parking areas which are adjacent to the airport entrance. Passengers who were departing on the Wednesday were asked to find alternative arrangements for their cars.

Suspect objects were also examined at the seaside town of Portrush. The security forces sealed off the Glenaan Drive and Dhu Varren areas of the town.

Further alerts involved the police and army carrying out searches of Flax Street and Herbert Street in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast following a telephoned bomb warning that three pipe bombs had been left in the vicinity.

Meanwhile British army bomb experts recovered two pipe bombs in Northern Ireland on Tuesday night.

One was thrown at a house in Ballymena, County Antrim, early on Wednesday August 1 morning. It landed at the back of the Sandown Park house but failed to explode. Army technical officers recovered and later made safe the device.

The other device was found in a hedge at Upperlands in the Fountain area of County Londonderry after an anonymous telephone warning. The device was later declared a hoax. (AMcE)