New security scare in Northern Ireland after car bomb blast
- Van hijacked days after a suspected car bombing in Londonderry puts North Ireland on edge, with some linking incidents to effect of Brexit
Police in Northern Ireland on Monday issued a security alert in Londonderry after receiving a report about a hijacked van, and arrested a fifth man over a car bombing in the city being linked to a dissident republican paramilitary group.
“Security alert currently in Derry/Londonderry in Circular Rd area after report van hijacked around 11:30am by 3 masked men who threw an object in the back before abandoning it,” the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) tweeted.
Police superintendent Gordon McCalmont said in a statement: “We anticipate significant disruption to the local community while we work to make the scene safe.”
Police also said they had arrested a 50-year-old man under the Terrorism Act as part of their investigation into the car bomb that detonated on Saturday outside the courthouse in the border city of Derry.
Four men, aged 42, 34, 21 and 21, were arrested on Sunday. Police have said they believe a paramilitary group calling itself the “New IRA” was behind the blast.
“We haven’t seen a device of this nature function for quite a while. It’s a high-risk tactic,” Mark Hamilton from the PSNI told BBC radio.