Around 1,000 teenagers packed into Omagh leisure centre to watch the teenage boy band perform an hour-long set of their hits.

Afterwards the stars met some of the young victims of the August bombing in Northern Ireland, many of them still bearing the scars of the attack.

Twenty-nine people were killed and hundreds more injured.

The band signed autographs and chatted to more than a dozen fans, some of them girls in wheelchairs who had lost limbs and others who had been badly burned in the attack.

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Lead singer Ronan Keating said: "To be greeted like this here is wonderful.

"We're just glad to be here to do what we can to help. The response when we went out on stage was phenomenal."

During the concert Ronan told the young audience: "I don't need to go into the reason why we are here. We are here to have a good time, isn't that right?"

The event was welcomed as a major boost for the town and the youngsters were clearly delighted at meeting their idols.

"It was excellent", said Una McGurk, 14, who was injured in the blast.

"It was great for them to come all this way to do a concert for us. It's a great start to the New Year. Let's hope 1999 is a better year than 1998", she said.

Ronan has already visited a young girl blinded in the bombing and the band's hit single Words features on the Omagh tribute album Across the Bridge of Hope.

The band are staging two shows at Omagh's leisure centre. They were recently voted Best Band on the Planet in a Smash Hits poll.