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Dissident republicans planted a bomb on a lorry they believed was bound for an Irish Sea ferry with a plan to detonate it to mark Brexit, the PSNI have said.<\/p>\nDissident republicans planted a bomb on a lorry they believed was bound for an Irish Sea ferry with a plan to detonate it to mark Brexit, the PSNI have said.<\/p>\n
Officers have blamed the Continuity IRA for the botched terror bid last Friday night.<\/p>\n
Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable George Clarke said the \u201ccarnage\u201d that could have been caused if the device had exploded was worrying to contemplate.<\/p>\n
The renegade group entered the yard of a Co. Armagh-based company specializing in the transportation of frozen goods and attached the bomb to a heavy goods vehicle they thought was destined for a late-night ferry crossing to Scotland.<\/p>\n
But officers suspect the dissidents selected the wrong vehicle, as the trailer containing the bomb did not leave its premises in Lurgan on Friday.<\/p>\n
The device was finally discovered at the yard on Monday night after an intensive police search operation.<\/p>\n
The security alert was initially prompted when the Belfast newspaper the Irish News received a warning on Friday night that a device had been left on a trailer in Belfast docks.<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke said the warning was \u201csparse and limited\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said it claimed that the bomb would be on the midnight ferry, when there was no ferry scheduled to depart at that time.<\/p>\n
A major police search operation instead focused on a late-night Stena Line ferry to Cairnryan. When nothing was found, the ferry was allowed to sail at 11.16pm.<\/p>\n
The Irish News then received a further call on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat call contained substantially more detail,\u201d said Mr Clarke, who is the PSNI\u2019s lead officer on Brexit.<\/p>\n
“It gave us the detail of a commercial haulage company and it indicated that the device had been left on a vehicle on a trailer connected to that company and the intention had been for that device to explode on Friday evening at around the time the United Kingdom left the European Union.”<\/p>\n
Mr Clarke declined to be drawn when asked at a media conference in Belfast whether the device would have had the capacity to sink the ferry.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am not going to get into a discussion about the engineering of the device but I will make a very simply point \u2013 anybody who plants a device in a public place is reckless to the consequences of their actions and of the potential to kill or seriously injure people in that area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly reckless activity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Police have now stepped up their presence, both uniformed and undercover, at ports in Northern Ireland amid fears of another attack.<\/p>\n
Stena Line declined to comment due to the live police investigation.<\/p>\n