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12/04/2011
Police To Review Border Bomb Cordon
The police in Northern Ireland are to carry out a review into why hundreds of motorists were able to drive past a van that was later found to contain a deadly 500lb bomb in the border city of Newry last week.
The underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin Road was closed after police found the suspect vehicle, but according to the PSNI cones were later removed by motorists.
Chief Supt Alasdair Robinson said members of the public "breached" the police cordon.
Mr Robinson went on to explain that police re-established a security cordon when they discovered that cones had been removed, which had allowed motorists to drive past the van containing the bomb.
The Newry and Mourne District Policing Partnership met on Monday night to discuss the incident.
Chairman, David McCauley said it would investigate if the area should have been cordoned off more effectively.
Police described the 500lb bomb as "sophisticated and substantial" and its discovery came less than a week after the murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh by dissident republican elements determined to wreck the Peace Process.
The Acting NI Policing Board Chairman, Brian Rea, insisted that police had done all they could to make the area safe: "Motorists appeared not to be willing to obey the police direction. The road closure sign and cones were set out but they were removed.
"Police have to be extremely careful when they enter into this type of situation and often they have to leave it some time before it is safe for them to do so."
Mr Robinson added: "You can't blame all of the people who drove past because they came to what they thought was an open road. We checked the cordon and we put police back in to close them down.
"The police were on the ground but as far as we were concerned the cordon was complete."
There were further security alerts when a suspect item was dicovered on the M1 near Lurgan and a similar discovery took place in the Bushford Manor area in Antrim.
See: Drivers Risk Lives In Border Bomb Alert
(JG/GK)
The underpass on the main Belfast to Dublin Road was closed after police found the suspect vehicle, but according to the PSNI cones were later removed by motorists.
Chief Supt Alasdair Robinson said members of the public "breached" the police cordon.
Mr Robinson went on to explain that police re-established a security cordon when they discovered that cones had been removed, which had allowed motorists to drive past the van containing the bomb.
The Newry and Mourne District Policing Partnership met on Monday night to discuss the incident.
Chairman, David McCauley said it would investigate if the area should have been cordoned off more effectively.
Police described the 500lb bomb as "sophisticated and substantial" and its discovery came less than a week after the murder of PSNI constable Ronan Kerr in Omagh by dissident republican elements determined to wreck the Peace Process.
The Acting NI Policing Board Chairman, Brian Rea, insisted that police had done all they could to make the area safe: "Motorists appeared not to be willing to obey the police direction. The road closure sign and cones were set out but they were removed.
"Police have to be extremely careful when they enter into this type of situation and often they have to leave it some time before it is safe for them to do so."
Mr Robinson added: "You can't blame all of the people who drove past because they came to what they thought was an open road. We checked the cordon and we put police back in to close them down.
"The police were on the ground but as far as we were concerned the cordon was complete."
There were further security alerts when a suspect item was dicovered on the M1 near Lurgan and a similar discovery took place in the Bushford Manor area in Antrim.
See: Drivers Risk Lives In Border Bomb Alert
(JG/GK)
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