Armagh alert an 'elaborate hoax'

A suspicious object discovered last night in the Mall area of Armagh City has been declared an 'elaborate hoax'.

A suspicious object discovered last night in the Mall area of Armagh City has been declared an 'elaborate hoax'.

The area, including Mall East, Mall West, College Hill and the Courthouse areas have reopened to traffic.

The device was examined by a British army bomb disposal team.

Newry and Armagh DUP Assembly member Cllr William Irwin condemned those who placed the hoax device in the city.

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"Despite the fact this was a hoax, given it has been placed close to the Cenotaph and in an area where a lot of people would walk and also close to a school entrance, really illustrates just how obnoxious these criminals are", he said.

On Saturday, police foiled an attempted bombing of the headquarters of the Policing Board in Belfast. A car containing a 180kg (400lb) explosive device crashed through security barriers at Clarendon Dock and was left outside the offices of the board, which oversees the PSNI. Two men ran away as the bomb partly exploded.

A burned-out vehicle was found later in nearby Hillman Street in the New Lodge area of north Belfast.

In a separate incident the same day, five men were arrested after police exchanged fire with suspected dissident republicans in Garrison, Co Fermanagh.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland detained four men in the area. Gardai arrested another man in Dooard, Co Leitrim. It is understood the attack in Garrison was an attempt to kill a police officer who lived in the village.