Man unhurt as pipe bomb explodes

Bomb was left outside a pensioner's house

A County Londonderry man escaped injury after he picked up a pipe bomb and threw it away just before it exploded.

Albert Moore picked up the device in Limavady on Monday morning at Roe Mill Road.

He threw it onto the grass before it exploded moments later.

Mr Moore said he had no idea that it was a pipe bomb.

Device left on doorstep

Meanwhile, on Monday evening the army defused a pipe bomb outside a house in Kilrea in County Derry.

The device was discovered by a householder in Drumsaragh Road on the front doorstep at about 1700 BST.

It was taken away for examination.

Speaking to the BBC about the Limavady incident, Mr Moore described examining the pipe bomb he found in Limavady, until neighbours realised what it was and warned him to throw it away.

He said: "I was out taking the dog for a walk and I happened to look down and saw a piece of copper pipe.

Albert Moore escaped injury after he picked up device

"I lifted it to take it to the bin thinking it was a piece of scrap.

"But I came around the corner with it and one of my neighbours saw me with it and one said it looked like a pipe bomb.

"I threw it away from me and then it exploded. I am lucky to be alive."

The police said they think the device may have been abandoned overnight.

The pensioner who lives at the house where it was left said it brought back painful memories for her.

Sylvia Callaghan lost her son Alan in the bombing of the Droppin Well pub in Ballykelly in 1982 by the republican paramilitary INLA.

Her son George said he and his neighbours could easily have been killed.

"It went off within five seconds of hitting the ground and flame shot up four feet into the air," he said.

The police have appealed to anyone who notices a suspicious object not to touch it and to contact them immediately.

GAA club attacked

There were a number of other incidents involving explosive devices on Sunday night and Monday. Two pipe bombs exploded in a car left outside a Gaelic Athletic Association club in Armoy, County Antrim.

The devices were left in an abandoned vehicle at the Glenshesk Road on Monday morning.

They were made safe by the army.

A separate security alert at a GAA club in Ballycastle, in north County Antrim, was declared a hoax.

'Sectarian' attack on family

Meanwhile, the police condemned what they described as an "entirely sectarian" petrol bomb attack on the home of a Catholic family in Armagh.

No-one was injured in the attack, but scorch damage was caused to the house in Rosemount Park in the city on Sunday night.

The people who carried this out have nothing to offer society

Superintendent Bob Moore

Police investigating the incident found another petrol bomb abandoned nearby.

RUC Superintendent Bob Moore, the commanding officer in Armagh, said the attack had the potential to cause death or serious injury.

"The people who carried it out have nothing to offer society," he said.

"They must be made to face the full rigour of the law, and I ask for the support of the community to help bring them to justice.

"We cannot allow this type of behaviour to happen."