Dissident Republicans planted Brexit bomb

Police say device found on lorry was timed to explode as Britain left the EU

Dissident Republicans plotted to blow up a ferry bound for the UK on Brexit day, police have revealed. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) received a tip-off on Jan 31 that a lorry containing a bomb was in Belfast docks and was due to travel by ferry to Scotland. An extensive search was carried out but no suspicious devices were found. However, after a subsequent tip-off police found a bomb on Tuesday night attached to a heavy vehicle in Lurgan, Co Armagh.

DISSIDENT Republicans plotted to blow up a ferry bound for the UK on Brexit day, police have revealed.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) received a tip-off on Jan 31 – the day the UK left the EU – that a lorry containing a bomb was in Belfast docks and was due to travel by ferry to Scotland that day.

An extensive search of all lorries in the area was carried out but no suspicious devices were found and the ferry was allowed to sail.

But George Clarke, the PSNI assistant chief constable, said a subsequent tip-off on Monday provided “substantially more detail” of the commercial haulage firm

‘Had this vehicle travelled and the device had exploded the risks posed do not bear thinking about’

whose lorry was targeted. Police carried out an extensive search of all lorries belonging to the firm and on Tuesday night found a bomb attached to a large goods vehicle at an industrial park in Lurgan, County Armagh.

Mr Clarke said those who planted the explosive “did intend that the device would explode at around the time that the UK left the EU”.

He added that the Continuity IRA were the chief suspects.

“On Friday evening, a warning or a call was made to a media outlet indicating a device had been left in a trailer on Belfast docks. It is very important to note that information was exceptionally sparse and limited,” he said. “These bombs are made by terrorists. They are made to a standard that cannot guarantee any form of safety.

“If the device was planted on a Friday, it was between Friday and Monday before they gave us the information that enabled us to locate this device.

“During that period of time, a viable bomb is in a commercial yard posing a significant risk to anyone who comes in range of it.”

It is understood the bomb was found on the trailer unit of a lorry owned by a firm that specialises in transporting frozen goods across the UK, Ireland and Europe.

Northern Ireland’s bomb disposal unit disarmed the device.

Sean Wright, a detective superintendent with the PSNI’S terrorism investigation unit, said: “It is clear from the information available to police that dissident republicans 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.

“Had this vehicle travelled and the device had exploded at any point along the M1, across the Westlink or into the harbour estate the risks posed do not bear thinking about,” he said.

“The only conclusion we can draw is that once again dissident republicans have shown a total disregard for the community, for businesses and for wider society.”

Dissident republicans have stepped up their campaign of violence over the past few years. Last April they were responsible for the murder of Lyra Mckee, a 29-year-old journalist in Londonderry.