Residents return home after pipe bombs made safe
Residents return home after pipe bombs made safe
Residents have returned to their homes following a security alert in Londonderry during which two pipe bombs were found.
More than 20 homes were evacuated when the suspect objects were found in Glenabbey Close and Beraghvale in the Galliagh area at about 00:30 GMT on Thursday.
The “viable devices” have now been made safe and removed for forensic examination but the police said it was fortunate they had not detonated before they were found.
They have described the incident as “reprehensible”.
Tamara McShane, a mother-of-four, was among those who had to leave her home.
“I’m so upset, my children were upset and there were police everywhere. I’m only back from finally getting them to school and the kids were full of questions,” she told BBC News NI.
She said the alert had been “scary”, and she hoped whoever was responsible “is happy with the disruption and upset caused on a cold and wet night”.
“You’re left wondering if these two devices were left targeting individuals or the street as a whole,” she said.
“I can’t believe this is happening.”
Chief Inspector Graeme Craig described the incident as “reprehensible”.
“The alert caused significant disruption for residents in the area with close to two dozen homes evacuated, including families with children,” he said.
“To have had to leave their homes in the hours of darkness, on a cold and wet night, will have been really unsettling, and caused massive disruption for people trying to get to work this morning and children attending school.
“There is no place for this and those who are responsible have absolutely no regard for the local community.”
He said officers would maintain a presence in the area on Thursday as their investigations continued.
The police have appealed for anyone with information, or who saw anything suspicious or untoward in the area in the last 24 hours to report it.
In a statement on social media, a local community organisation said the alert had shaken “a lot of people”.
“Families were woken out of their sleep and made leave their homes in the dark, trying to gather children, all while not really knowing what was happening, the Skeoge community hub said.
“None of this is what our community wants.
“We have worked hard to move forward, to build a place that feels safe and hopeful and incidents like this have no place here anymore.”
SDLP councillor John Boyle condemned the disruption to residents.
“Evidently it’s caused an awful lot of disruption and upset for people living in that part of the town,” he told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme.
“It’s senseless, it’s really senseless, where does it get us, where does it bring us, where’s the positivity?
“There isn’t any.”
