Dissident plot ‘to blow up ferry on Brexit Day’ foiled
Bomb could have been ‘catastrophic’
‘They do not care for people of the North’
In the latest disturbing sign of the increased capabilities of groups opposed to the peace process, officers in the North searched 400 vehicles before discovering the bomb this week.
Yesterday, politicians in the North condemned the murderous plot which they said could have caused massive loss of life. The Police Service of Northern Ireland received a report that an explosive device had been left on a lorry bound for a ferry to Scotland in Belfast docks last Friday, the day the UK left the EU.
An intensive search was carried out, but nothing was found, and the ferry sailed as planned.
But on Monday, officers received a further report that a device was attached to a lorry belonging to a haulage company.
After a two-day operation, which involved the search of 400 vehicles, an explosive device was found attached to a heavy goods vehicle in the Silverwood Industrial Estate in Lurgan, Co. Armagh.
It was made safe by British Army bomb disposal officers.
It is understood that the bomb was discovered on the trailer unit of a lorry owned by a company that specialises in transporting frozen goods across Europe.
Detective Superintendent Sean Wright, from the PSNI’s Terrorism Investigation Unit, said dissident republicans had ‘deliberately and recklessly attached an explosive device to a heavy goods vehicle in the full knowledge and expectation that it would put the driver of that vehicle, road users and the wider public at serious risk of injury and possible death’.
He said if the bomb had exploded while being driven to Belfast or at the docks, ‘the risks posed do not bear thinking about’.
Police revealed last night that the bomb may have been put in the wrong trailer by the terrorists.
As a result, it was left in the yard rather than crossing the Irish Sea, where police said it was intended to explode ‘at around the time the UK left the EU’.
They believe the botched attempt is the work of the Continuity IRA.
Ulster Unionist Party policing spokesman Doug Beattie called for robust action to be taken against those responsible.
‘This was no minor device; this was a very deliberate attempt to cause an explosion on a ferry, and, given the inherent instability of these devices, it could easily have detonated in the lorry’s yard, on the M1, in the middle of Belfast or on a ferry itself in the middle of the Irish Sea,’ he said.
‘It is clear that violent republicans do not care for the people of Northern Ireland, regardless of what community they come from.
‘They are sadistic, career terrorists who need to be locked up for a very long time.’
Sinn Féin’s policing spokesman, Gerry Kelly, said there could have been ‘catastrophic loss of life’ if the device had detonated on board a ferry.
‘If it had exploded, you are talking about catastrophic loss of life, and whoever planted this bomb needs to know that,’ he said.
‘There is no purpose and they need to desist and go off the stage and move away from any such actions.’
Police have appealed for anyone who saw anything suspicious on the estate between 4pm and 10pm last Friday to come forward.
There have been a number of dissident attacks in recent months.
A group calling itself the New IRA is suspected of involvement in the shooting of 29-year-old journalist Lyra McKee while she was observing rioting in Derry last April.
The same organisation – which formed after a merger of smaller splinter groups – took responsibility for five crude letter bombs sent to addresses including London’s Heathrow Airport and Waterloo Station the previous month.
And the rival Continuity IRA was blamed after a bomb exploded in Co. Fermanagh on August 19 last in what police said was an attempt to lure officers to their deaths.