Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Big bomb found on Irish border

Updated at 8:45 am on 29 April 2012

Police in Northern Ireland say a massive bomb has been found inside a van found on a country road which crosses the border to the Republic of Ireland.

Chief Superintendent Alasdair Robinson said it contained 600lbs (250kg) of explosives and was primed to explode.

''Anyone within 50 metres of this device would have been killed and anyone within 100 metres, seriously injured,'' he said.

The device was reported by a member of the public on Thursday. It was in a vehicle which had been abandoned with its engine running. It was made safe on Friday evening.

The road was closed for 24 hours while police and Army dealt with the alert.

Chief Superintendent Robinson said the bomb was twice as big as the bomb that exploded outside Newry courthouse two years ago.

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