Prison authorities in the North have opened an investigation after bomb parts were found during the search of a high-security jail.
The components of a crude device - including wires, batteries and lead piping - were buried in a garden used by inmates near the perimeter fence of Maghaberry prison in Co Antrim.
No explosives were discovered during the three day search of the facility and a Prison Service spokesman said the items recovered yesterday could not have made a viable bomb.
However, the find comes less than a month after traces of the explosive Semtex were reportedly identified during another search of cells.
Maghaberry, near Lisburn, holds many of Northern Ireland’s most dangerous offenders, including dissident republican terrorists opposed to the peace process.
The NI Prison Service spokesman said today: “In the course of the extensive searches being carried out in Maghaberry prison we can confirm that some component parts of a small potential device were found in the grounds of the prison yesterday.”
The major search operation saw visits from inmate family members and lawyers cancelled from Thursday.
The lockdown was ordered by the prison’s new governor Steve Rodford, who was appointed earlier this year after a major controversy was sparked by the suicide of an inmate who was supposed to be under observation.
Visits resumed yesterday afternoon.
PA
151218 NOV 09