Family escapes injury in attack

The explosion broke a glass panel in the front door

A disabled man was among seven people who escaped injury in an overnight pipe bomb attack on a house in County Antrim.

The device exploded on the doorstep of a Catholic family's home at Barnfield Grange in the Derriaghy area near Lisburn at about 0245 BST on Monday.

The explosion broke a glass panel in the front door and filled the hall with smoke.

Mrs Christine Curran, who has lived there with her family for seven years, appealed to those responsible for the attack to leave the family alone.

She said: "We don't know who would target us.

Christine Curran: "We don't know who would target us"

"We don't bother anybody. All I want to know is do these people realise what they are doing?"

Mrs Curran said that all the family wanted was "a bit of peace".

The attack has been condemned by the local SDLP councillor Peter O'Hagan and the Ulster Unionist MP for the area Jeffrey Donaldson.

Mr Donaldson said it should be rejected by "all right thinking people".

In Ballycastle a suspicious object, which was found attached to a flag, was declared a hoax after being examined by an Army bomb disposal team.

It was discovered on a telephone pole close to a house on the Glenshesk Road on Monday.

Meanwhile, in Coleraine a security alert has been declared an elaborate hoax.

A controlled explosion was carried out on a suspect device left outside an unoccupied flat at Clarence Court.

The police said elderly residents who were moved out of their homes during the alert were caused considerable distress by the incident.