Man held following foiled bomb attack

One man is still being questioned by police following a foiled bomb attack in County Armagh, which is believed to be the work of dissident republicans.

A police routine patrol operating in the Killylea area in Armagh discovered a white Vauxhall Astra car parked on the Knappagh Road outside Armagh early on Tuesday November 20. After examination army technical officers discovered the car had its boot packed with around 300lbs of homemade explosives and a trigger mechanism in the passenger seat. Army bomb disposal experts spent several hours making safe the primed device.

Police have said the device could have caused death and destruction on a large scale, and that a man was still being questioned.

Assistant Chief Constable for South Region, Stephen White, said lives had undoubtedly been saved by the discovery of a large bomb: “But for good police work, we would have been talking about death and another atrocity in one of our town centres.” (AMcE)