A ROADSIDE bomb in Fermanagh could have killed indiscriminately, according to the PSNI. Dissident republicans were blamed for planting the device close to the Border at Wattlebridge, near Newtownbutler in Co Fermanagh.
PSNI Chief Insp Alwyn Barton said while police might have been the intended target anyone might have been killed.
“At the roadside it could cause injury or death to absolutely anyone who comes within reach of it, it is completely indiscriminate,” he said.
“We are working on the basis that dissident republicans were involved in this. They could not care who gets hurt or injured and if the community has any information, members need to support the police in our attempt to keep the community safe,” said Chief Insp Barton.
Dissidents have been involved in several such attacks in recent months, with many of them concentrated in Fermanagh.
PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde has warned that the different dissident groups were vying with each other to be the first to murder a member of the PSNI.
Local Fermanagh Ulster Unionist Assembly member Tom Elliott repeated that such was the threat that the British army should be called out to support the police.
DUP Minister and Fermanagh MLA Arlene Foster said the threat demanded a “swift and robust” security response from police.
“Dissident republican groups pose a significant threat to both the police and the general public. It is clear that they are centring their activity in Co Fermanagh and are determined to up the ante in their efforts to destroy property and murder police and civilians,” she said.
In south Belfast the British army bomb disposal unit was called out to deal with a pipe bomb yesterday.
The device was discovered in a coal bunker at a house in Malone Park Central. A number of nearby houses were evacuated during the security operation.
