Three arrested in security alert

Three people have been arrested following a security alert in Belfast on Wednesday.

One man was arrested after an explosive device was found at a property in Kildare Street in the north of the city. During the same alert, but at a separate address in the same street, a man and woman were arrested after police recovered a firearm.

Meanwhile, in a separate security alert in east Belfast, two pipe bombs and ammunition were found in the Mountforde Drive area of Mountpottinger. A number of houses were evacuated on Wednesday after the devices were found behind a property.

Meanwhile, police are appealing for information after car thieves went on the rampage and damaged a total of eight vehicles across west Belfast on Wednesday.

A car was taken as a result of a burglary in Lisburn and used by the thieves to crash into a police car at Roden Street in the Donegall Road area then hit a further three cars on the Falls Road as they evaded officers.

The thieves then drove to the Broadway roundabout at the end of the M1, where they crashed into another police vehicle, two other cars and a lorry before mounting the footpath.

The teenagers, believed to be two males and a female, were seen running from the car after abandoning the vehicle at the Royal Victoria Hospital.

No one was injured during the incidents and police have appealed for any witnesses to come forward.

(MB/SP)