Suspect device sent to DPP member

A suspect device has been sent to a member of a district policing partnership in Co Down.

SDLP councillor Michael Carr received the device by post to his home in Warrenpoint. Army bomb experts were immediately called to the scene and made safe the package.

Cllr Carr said he believed the device had been sent by dissident republicans. "I am very annoyed and angry - there are children in this house who could have opened the package," he said.

Last month, four hoax devices addressed to district policing partnership members were intercepted at a postal sorting office in Co Antrim.

A worker at the Royal Mail sorting office in Mallusk discovered a suspicious package before army bomb experts carried out a search of the facility and discovered a further three devices.

Last August, seven suspicious packages addressed to members of the Policing Board and the police ombudsman were also intercepted at the Mallusk office, which is Northern Ireland's main sorting office.

Dissident republicans are thought to have been behind those incidents as well.

(MB)