A potentially lethal explosive device which included a number of 4 inch bolts was used in an attack on a Traveller woman and her 12 children in Co Donegal, gardai have confirmed.
The home-made device blew a hole in the side of the caravan when the 33-year-old woman and her children, aged from three to 13 years, were inside.
A number of the children received cuts and bruises from flying debris.
The attack happened at about 9.30 p.m. on Friday in The Rock area of Ballyshannon. Gardai have opened an incident room in the town and have appealed for information from the public.
Remnants of the device are being sent by the Garda to Dublin today for forensic examination. A Garda spokesman said that shortly before it exploded, a rock was thrown through a window of the caravan, hitting a seven-year-old child on the mouth.
Later on Friday night, after the family was taken to temporary accommodation and gardai had completed their examination of the scene, the caravan was burned to the ground.
A local garda described the incident as "very serious" and added: "It was lucky there wasn't a massacre. We could have been pulling bodies out of there very easily."
The gardai say all lines of inquiry are still open as to the motivation behind the attack. House-to-house inquiries have been conducted in the locality. There has been tension in recent months in Ballyshannon over a number of Traveller families who were camped illegally in the Market Yard.
In July, Donegal County Council took legal action to force Travellers out of the car park, and there has been criticism in the local media of the alleged behaviour of some Travellers.
People in Ballyshannon said yesterday they did not believe locals were responsible for Friday night's attack.
Mr Barney McLoughlin, a Town Commissioner and chief executive of a local community development association, said there had "never been any history of any local person taking action like that against any Traveller family".
He said the attack was abhorrent and he condemned it. "I think the vast majority of people in Ballyshannon are horrified at the thought of what happened. I would be very concerned to know who was the instigator but I don't honestly believe it was anybody in the community in Ballyshannon.
"That caravan was only in the town a day or two, and we have had caravans in the Market Yard for 12 months and there has never been anything like that." He said that while there had been complaints about illegal Traveller encampments in the town, local people had always stayed within the law.
"People have gone to their public representatives with complaints, but it is not in Ballyshannon's style to do something outside the law like this," Mr McLoughlin added.
Mr Davey Joyce of the Irish Travellers' Movement said he was concerned about speculation that the attack was linked to a Traveller feud. "This seems to be the first thing that is said now, no matter what happens," he added. "It seems that half the caravan was blown away in the explosion. Whoever did this did not have much regard for human life."
The Garda incident room at Ballyshannon can be contacted at 072-51103.