24/07/2001

Pipe bomb attacks continue in Country Antrim

County Antrim has been the focus of several overnight incidents involving pipe bombs, which saw one Portrush man narrowly escape injury when his house was singled out for attack.

The device was thrown through the window of the house in Glenmanus Park at around midnight on Monday 23 July, but failed to go off. The surrounding area was evacuated and British army bomb expert later made the device safe.

Meanwhile, at around 1.30am, in what is thought to be an unrelated attack, a pipe bomb exploded in a car in Ballymena in the Shetland Park area. The vehicle, an unoccupied Ford Escort, was damaged when the device went off, but there are no reports of any injuries.

The events are the latest in a recent spate of attacks involving pipe bombs. Early on Monday 23 July, a device was thrown at the front of a house in the Derriaghy area in Co Antrim, shattering glass in the front door and causing smoke damage to the hall. However, residents of the house, which included a mentally disabled man, escaped injury.

A pipebomb also exploded at a Catholic home in Kylemore Road on Sunday, and on the same day the window of a Catholic Church in Glennock, Newtownstewart, County Tyrone, was shattered by a similar crude device. (CL)

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