Police in Northern Ireland launches investigation after explosive discovery

LONDON - Police in Northern Ireland have launched an investigation into a bomb found attached to a heavy goods vehicle in an industrial estate, local media reported Thursday.

The police said that they received a report that an explosive device was on a lorry in Belfast docks due to travel to Scotland on Jan 31. An intensive search was carried out and nothing was found, and the ferry sailed as planned, the London-based Evening Standard newspaper reported.

On Monday, officers received a further report that a device was attached to a lorry belonging to a named haulage company. After a two-day search, which involved the search of 400 vehicles, a bomb was found attached to a heavy goods vehicle in the Silverwood industrial estate in Lurgan, a town in Northern Ireland about 29 km southwest of Belfast.

The bomb was made safe by army bomb disposal officers.

Sinn Fein's policing spokesman Gerry Kelly said there could have been "catastrophic loss of life" if the device had detonated on board a ferry, according to the newspaper.