Witnesses Key To Belfast Trip-Wire Bomb Probe

A group of young people who were in two cars may hold vital information about a booby-trap bomb attempt to murder or maim PSNI officers in south Belfast.

The teenagers are know to have stopped near a park where the bomb had been planted by terrorist trying to kill police officers at Annadale Embankment on Monday night.

The PSNI have also said they now believe that the bomb was supposed to have been triggered by a trip wire - but failed to go off.

Today, it emerged that a group of youths who stopped outside the park could help them catch the bombers.

A senior police officer said they could hold "significant" information in the case.

Police were initially called to a wooded area off the embankment, close to a scenic part of the River Lagan on Monday evening.

They were responding to a 999-call saying there was a woman in distress - but no such woman was found at the scene.

However, they did find a "small but viable bomb" attached by a tripwire to a gate. Officers passed through the gate to investigate the scene but the device did not detonate and it is thought the emergency call from a man on a mobile phone was a hoax to lure the policemen to their death.

Issuing a new appeal on Thursday, Detective Superintendent David Cunningham from the PSNI's Serious Crime Branch said: "We want to talk to a group of young people who had stopped in two cars close to the gate at about 11.40pm on Monday night.

"They could well have significant information which will assist this investigation.

"We think the cars might have been a dark-coloured Peugeot 206 and a small silver car. One of them appeared to have run out of petrol and the young people had a fuel can.

"These young people have done nothing wrong, but they were close to the scene of the attempted murder a short time before the 999 call was made. We need to talk to them."

The news came shortly after the outgoing Stormont First Minister and DUP Leader, Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister, Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness joined earlier condemnations of the incident by other public figures.

The Ministers also condemned the recent parcel bomb attacks on Celtic manager Neil Lennon as well as those on Mr Lennon's lawyer, Paul McBride QC, and former Deputy Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Trish Godman.

Mr Robinson said: "All of these disgusting and cowardly attacks were clearly designed to murder and maim. The people who carried them out do not represent wider society, they are a small minority consumed by bigotry and hatred who have nothing to offer but misery and pain."

Mr McGuinness said: "Genuine soccer fans want nothing to do with the attacks on the Celtic Manager, a leading QC and a former Member of the Scottish Parliament, and will be abhorred by these attacks.

"The people behind the recent attack on the PSNI in South Belfast, will not be allowed to drive a wedge in our community or in our political institutions," he insisted.

(BMcC/GK)