Girl escapes injury in bomb attack

The device was carried into the house by a 10-year-old girl

A prison officer's young daughter has had a narrow escape after she unwittingly picked up a bomb at her County Down home.

The house in Brunswick Road, Bangor, was attacked on Tuesday night but the home-made device was not found until Wednesday.

Police say security forces were not called for several hours because her parents did not realise that the device was explosive.

The 10-year-old girl found the device in her front garden and brought it into the house.

The lengthy security operation to defuse the device ended on Wednesday night.

The incident is the latest in a series of attacks on prison officers' homes in County Down in recent weeks.

Peter Russell, director general of the Prison Service in Northern Ireland, said the attack was "contemptible".

The perpetrators of this have clearly shown a callous disregard for life. Peter Weir DUP

"Any attack on prison officers is despicable and amounts to an attack on working men and women who are simply doing their job to support their family," he said.

Alliance Party deputy leader and north Down councillor Eileen Bell condemned the attack.

"In this particular incident it seems that once again, in Holywood as in other places in north Down, the family homes of prison officers have been attacked," she said.

"There is a young family there so I think it is disgraceful that these people should know where these people live and be able to come and put them in jeopardy."

Former DUP Assembly member Peter Weir said the family were lucky they were not seriously injured.

"This was a despicable act and I think we are very fortunate that we are not actually talking about the death of a 10-year-old," he said.

"The perpetrators of this have clearly shown a callous disregard for life.

"To attack the family home of someone, to clearly put at risk the lives of a family and particularly the life of a young child, I think, is beneath contempt."

And former north Down assembly member Jane Morrice of the Women's Coalition, described the attack as appalling.

"Prison officers and their families have had to endure threats and attacks for doing a job which is essential to the whole of society", she said.

"Community and political leaders on all sides should send a strong message that this short of activity is totally unacceptable, and we must do more to protect them."