Tyrone bomb was intended to kill police officers, PSNI chief says

The bomb found in Strabane, Co Tyrone, on Saturday was a "viable mortar type device" which was intended to kill police officers, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has said.

The police believe dissident republicans were responsible. A 33-year-old man was arrested under anti-terrorism legislation on Sunday morning and is being questioned by police.

A local resident discovered the improvised explosive device (IED) on a wall near homes in Church View, overlooking the town’s police station, on Saturday morning.

The PSNI Chief Constable, Simon Byrne, said it was “another callous attempt to kill or main our officers”.

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PSNI detective inspector Andrew Hamlin said he believed "this device was placed in order to attack police officers at the nearby police station", but the bomb had "the capacity to kill or seriously injure anyone in the vicinity".

“This is not the first time a deadly device has been left in a public space recently and serves to remind us all how little the terrorists responsible care for the lives of local people,” he said.

Pizza delivery

Det insp Hamlin said the bomb had been placed in a car which was hijacked from a pizza delivery driver in the Mount Sion area of Strabane at about 9.40pm on Friday.

“A fake order was placed with a pizza outlet from a phone box on Bridge Street,” he said, “and when the driver arrived at the stated address, his orange-coloured Fiat Sedici was taken from him by three men.

“It was subsequently discovered on fire at Evish Road around 45 minutes later.”

It is understood the van was used to transport the bomb to Church View, where it was found on the wall.

He appealed to anyone who saw the orange Fiat in Strabane, or who noticed anything out of the ordinary in the Church View area of the town on Friday night, to contact police on 101.

A number of people were evacuated from their houses on Saturday while the device was examined by British army bomb experts.

The SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said that had the device detonated, people could have been killed.

“There is no place for these criminals on the streets of our town,” he said. “Those who planted a viable explosive device in a built-up residential area were reckless with the lives of the elderly people and families who live here. They need to get off our streets and get off the back of people living here.

“Those responsible must be flushed out of this community, and they should face justice for their attempt to murder and maim our friends and neighbours,” he said.

Sinn Féin’s Órfhlaith Begley, the MP for West Tyrone, described it as an attack on the entire community which “only served to bring disruption and fear to the local community in Strabane who reject these dangerous and futile actions”.

“Those responsible have nothing to offer society and need to end their attacks against the community,” she said.

Dissident republican groups have made a number of attempts to kill police officers in Northern Ireland this year.

Last month the Continuity IRA was blamed for a bomb on the Border at Wattle Bridge, Co Fermanagh, which detonated as police and members of the British army’s bomb disposal team were responding to reports of a hoax.

The New IRA has previously made use of vehicles hijacked from pizza delivery drivers in its attacks. It was responsible for a bomb which exploded outside the courthouse in Derry in January. The device was left outside the courthouse in a van which had been hijacked from a driver delivering pizza.

The group was also responsible for the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in the Creggan area of Derry in April.