Police have said a dissident republican bomb left outside a British government building in Belfast city-centre could have caused widespread havoc.
A device, described by police as "substantial" was left in a van parked outside the motor tax office in Upper Queen Street early yesterday.
No organisation has claimed responsibility for the attack, but security sources believed it was the work of the "Real IRA".
British Army bomb disposal experts carried out several controlled explosions before making safe what police said was a "powerful explosive device". Runners taking part in the Belfast Marathon yesterday ran past the area which was taped off.
A security operation began after midnight when police received a call from a man who said a package had been placed in his van and he had been ordered to drive from Ardoyne in north Belfast to Upper Queen Street.
The Phoenix Gas employee was lured to Ardoyne by a caller reporting a suspected gas leak. When he arrived, he was confronted by two masked and armed men who put a gun to his head while the bomb was loaded into his van. He was then ordered to drive it to the motor tax office. Chief Insp Ian Blaney said if the bomb had exploded it "would have created havoc for the city centre, substantial damage, and threat to the loss of life of anyone in the vicinity".