THREE MEN aged in their 20s were being questioned last night by gardaí in Ballyfermot following an explosion in the Dublin suburb on Sunday.
The blast happened after an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated under a car in the driveway of a house at Thomond Road, Ballyfermot, at 10.40pm, on Sunday.
No injuries were reported although substantial damage was done to the car under which the device was placed while minor damage was done to the house.
Shortly after the incident three men were detained at Ballyfermot Garda station under section 30 of the Offences against the State Act 1939.
A Garda spokesman yesterday said gardaí were treating the incident as a “stand-alone investigation” and that no motive had been established.
The scene was preserved following the explosion for a technical examination which took place yesterday.
The three men detained can be questioned for up to three days.
The attack comes less than a week after an Army bomb disposal team made safe a viable IED that was removed from a car on the Ballyfermot Road.
On that occasion, the device was made safe at the scene and then removed to a military location for further analysis.
Following the arrest of two men in their late 20s and early 30s at the scene, a house in the Wheatfield area was searched and a large quantity of ammunition was discovered.
A third man (in his late 20s) was arrested at the house.
It marked the 26th viable IED made safe by the Army bomb disposal unit in 2011.
A total of 48 devices were made safe in 2010.
An Army spokesman last night said that while the figure for 2010 was less than 2009 when 69 explosive devices were made safe, the unit was meeting a wider range of devices than ever before.
It is believed the number of call-outs for the unit looks set to far surpass last year’s figure, with 148 already being made so far in 2011 whereas there were 198 call-outs for the whole of 2010.