Families escape injury in pipe bomb attacks

A woman and her son have escaped injury in a pipe bomb attack on their home at Ballynahinch in County Down.

The device exploded at the front door of the house in Windmill Avenue around 2am on Friday April 26.

The door was damaged and windows in the house and a neighbouring house were shattered.

A number of people were seen running from the area after the attack.

The MP for the area Eddie McGrady has condemned the attack. He said: “This bomb in the middle of a residential area could have killed or seriously injured or maimed not only the occupants of the house where it was left but other people who lived here.”

Meanwhile, overnight, four families had to be moved from their homes in Coleraine in County Londonderry because of a bomb alert.

Army bomb disposal experts were called when a suspicious object was found on Windyhill Road.

But after examining it they said the device was an elaborate hoax.

(AMcE)