BALLYCASTLE BOMB ALERT DECLARED FALSE ALARM

POLICE have declared a suspicious device left outside a Ballycastle GAA club to be a hoax.

Following a telephone warning, a vehicle was found outside the GAA Club on the Leyland Road. Police carried out a controlled explosion, and declared the device to be a false alarm.

However, a second car, which had been abandoned outside another GAA Club in Armoy, County Antrim, was found to have contained two pipe bombs which had already exploded. British army bomb disposal experts were called in to deal with the incident, which occurred on the Glenshesk Road, and they confirmed that two devices had gone off inside the car. A telephone warning had also been given in advance of the incident.

The security alerts follow a similar series of disruptions following the discovery of numerous devices outside an Orange Hall and other locations in Maghera on Sunday 8 July.

An Orange Order parade was disrupted by a security alert when a suspicious device was found outside the Orange Hall in Church Street early on Sunday morning. Two other devices were later found near Protestant homes in the Meeting House estate, while another device was found at the gate of a house in Meetinghouse Avenue in the town. (CL)