CIRA believed to have planted NI bomb

The Continuity IRA is believed to have been responsible for a bomb at a hotel in Co Fermanagh last night

The Continuity IRA is believed to have been responsible for a bomb at a hotel in Co Fermanagh last night. The device exploded at the rear of Mahon's Hotel in Mill Street, Irvinestown.

It is understood that nobody was injured in the blast. Warnings were given to local radio stations 35 minutes earlier in the CIRA's name, although the caller did not use a recognised codeword.

The hotel had just been evacuated when the device went off, at about 7.20 p.m. The area around the premises was cordoned off.

The RUC also evacuated the Manor House Hotel at Killydeas, outside Enniskillen, after warnings that a device had also been left there. However, nothing was found.

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The CIRA is the only republican paramilitary organisation not on ceasefire.

The hotel-owner, Mr Tommy Mahon, said the blast had caused considerable damage.

"The bottom gable wall is wrecked, and the ceilings and kitchen and toilets have been blown out," he said.

The bomb was left at the rear of the premises.

Mrs Theresa Killoran from Trillick, Co Fermanagh, who was eating in the hotel with her husband and three children, said: "A policewoman told us there was a bomb scare and we had to leave.

"My first thought was to get the children out. But then I started worrying that it could be another Omagh with people thinking they were moving to safety, only to be moving towards the bomb."

The Sinn Fein minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, "unequivocally condemned" the attack. The Sinn Fein President, Mr Gerry Adams said the bombers "are not acting in the interests of any real section of the Irish people and they should disband".