POLICE IN NORTHERN Ireland have condemned those who left a bomb in a hold all in the heart of Belfast yesterday evening.
A small explosion occurred outside a restaurant in the busy Cathedral Quarter shortly before 7pm yesterday and the PSNI has said the device “had the potential to kill or cause serious injury”.
Police said a warning had been given about a device to a newspaper, but it was left at a different location to that named. That call warned of a device at a hotel in the Cathedral Quarter, but it was actually left on the footpath adjacent to the front of a busy restaurant.
Police were clearing people from licensed premises,a hotel, The MAC, residential properties and St Anne’s Cathedral when the device exploded. Approximately 1,000 people were affected.
(Image: Paul Faith/PA Wire/PA)
Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum said it had been a “totally reckless” attack that could have killed or maimed anyone nearby when the device went off.
“This was an attack on the people of Belfast going about their normal lives on a busy night for socialising in the city,” he said.
This attack ruined the night out for these people. Those who carried out this attack have nothing to offer except disruption and destruction.
Police are appealing for continued community support and vigilance on the run up to Christmas in seeking to disrupt or deter any further attack on the city.
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