POLICE IN NORTHERN Ireland have said that three suspicious devices found off one Derry road overnight were all elaborate hoaxes.

The PSNI were called to investigate three separate security alerts at the Gobnascale Road in Foyle between 1am and 2am this morning.

A bomb disposal team was sent to each scene and the houses around each suspicious object was evacuated before the devices were declared to be hoaxes.

“Residents were able to return to their homes shortly before 7am this morning and all roads in the area were re-opened,” the PSNI said in a statement this morning.

A number of items have been taken away for further forensic examinations.

The alert happened just one day after a masked man claiming to be in the new IRA boarded a bus in Derry on Wednesday evening and said he had a bomb. He ordered the bus driver to drive to the Strand Road police station; however the driver instead notified police.