Explosion Alert At Derry Man's Donegal Home

It has been revealed that a partially exploded bomb has today been made safe by Irish army ordnance technicians.

The experts are still at the border home of the Londonderry man who was shot and injured at the house last month. The bomb experts are examining the remains of a partly exploded pipe bomb, which was attached to a five-gallon drum of petrol, but failed to ignite in the blast.

The device was uncovered at the Co Donegal home of the unnamed victim of an earlier bizarre shooting, which involved the death of his pet dog and the short-lived abduction of his girlfriend who was also in the car at the time of the shooting.

The three-month-old St Bernard pup, which was in the rear seat of a car when it was sprayed with bullets during the attack on the driver, died earlier this month.

The 26-year-old Londonderry man was attacked in the border village of St Johnston on September 25.

He was sitting in a car with his girlfriend outside a house in the townland of Transalla when four masked men approached and opened fire on the car.

The man was hit him in the neck as his girlfriend leapt from the vehicle.

The injured man then managed to drive off, though his girlfriend was briefly abducted by the gang, only to be later abandoned, uninjured.

Her boyfriend drove to a neighbour's house and alerted Gardaí and was then taken to Letterkenny Hospital.

In the latest development, six families were moved from their homes at Transalla, near St Johnston, following the discovery at the device at around 9.20pm last night.

Gardaí were also alerted after a priest in Derry received a telephone warning.

The 26-year-old from Creggan was seriously injured after he was shot in the neck on 25 September.

He had only recently moved to the area.

See: Shot Dog Dies

(BMcC)