A joint mobile patrol of the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary had a narrow escape when a mortar bomb failed to explode on the Falls Road, near the Andersonstown RUC barracks, the Belfast Brigade of the IRA claimed last night.
A caller to a Belfast newsroom, using a recognised code word, said the device had failed to detonate as planned at 10 a.m. yesterday as the patrol was passing. The IRA spokesman said the organisation's "technicians" had made the device safe. The area was later sealed off.
A second area of the city was being checked by the RUC last night after a telephone warning was received of a possible bomb device in a parked car. A spokesman said the Cliftonville. Road/Antrim Road junction in the north of the city was being examined.
Meanwhile, seven men on extortion charges are expected to have their cases heard at Belfast Magistrate Court this morning. The seven were arrested at Mallusk, in the north of the city.