Four men have been detained by police investigating a suspected dissident republican bomb factory in Co Armagh.
The four men were arrested under the Terrorism Act as more than 100kg (220lb) of fertiliser-based homemade explosives suitable for imminent use in a large bomb were recovered at a car-breaker's yard in a residential area of Lurgan. Three were arrested at the scene early yesterday and a fourth was arrested later at another location.
The scene at Antrim Road, close to the railway line between Belfast and Dublin, remained sealed off yesterday, disrupting train services until about 5pm. Police came under attack by small groups throwing stones and petrol bombs. The area was reported quiet by late afternoon.
PSNI superintendent Alan Todd said the bomb under construction was close to completion. "Material of that sort is by its nature unstable. The people preparing these things do so with the intent to use it as soon as possible. The device was being constructed for immediate use."
The police did not say if they suspected what the intended target was. Supt Todd said it was particularly worrying that the bomb was being constructed so close to an industrial estate.
"It's a very worrying escalation at a time when the community is trying to move forward, that there is still a small number of individuals intent on swimming against the tide of public opinion."
Dissidents have not carried out a major bombing in Northern Ireland since Omagh in 1998. However, attacks blamed on dissidents were made at the BBC in London in 2000 and at Ealing Broadway the following year.
SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly said she believed the Continuity IRA was behind the construction of the bomb.
"Those behind this bomb-making activity are an enemy to us all and they are enemies to political progress. They are pursuing activity of the past and there is absolutely no support for this type of violence," she said.
"Politicians across the North must move forward together to get the Assembly and all of the institutions of the Good Friday agreement up and running again.
"The good people of the North of Ireland want to move away from the shadows of the conflict, and dissident republicans must come on board and realise the days of guns and bombs are over."
Sinn Féin Assembly member for Upper Bann John O'Dowd said: "It has been alleged that this device is the work of one of the republican micro-organisations. These groups are opposed to the peace process and the Good Friday agreement. The discovery of this device has . . . caused anger within the community.
"These groups have little or no support within this community and they do not have a strategy to deliver Irish unity and independence. This activity is wrong and should stop."