Man injured in building site blast

The man was injured on a building site

The police have said they believe a bomb attack in County Tyrone, which injured a Catholic workman, was sectarian.

The 53-year-old workman was hurt as he opened the door of a digger at a building site on Main Street in Moygashel on Thursday morning, triggering a booby-trap device.

He is being treated at Craigavon Area Hospital where his condition is described as stable.

RUC Chief Inspector Frances Nolan condemned the attack.

She said: "This is a decent honest hardworking man who came to this community to contribute something."

Vincent Currie: Attack was "sectarian"

Democratic Unionist social development minister Maurice Morrow said the attack on a person going about his daily work in the Oaklee Housing Association development was "cowardly and despicable".

He added: "How can anyone justify targeting a social housing project which is much-needed in the Moygashel area?"

Social Democratic and Labour Party councillor Vincent Currie condemned the attack.

He said the explosion was caused by a crude device containing a firework.

Fermanagh/South Tyrone Ulster Unionist MP Ken Maginnis said those behind the attack were "faceless cowards and should be treated as such".

"These people are my enemy as well as the enemy of the person who was targeted," he said.

Michelle Gildernew of Sinn Fein said she was "disgusted" by the attack.

Railway line alerts

Meanwhile, army experts examined railway lines in Carrickfergus, County Antrim and near Newry in County Down.

In Carrickfergus, a suspicious object was found on the railway line close to Barn Halt.

Keiran Rogan: "Alerts causing disruption to passengers"

The alert on the railway line at Killeavy, near Newry started on Wednesday night.

The line is still being searched after the police received reports of an explosion shortly before 2200 GMT.

This followed a telephone warning that a bomb had been left on the railway line.

As a result of the alert, train services between Newry and Dundalk, in the Irish Republic, have been suspended, and passengers have had to be bussed between the towns.

Ciaran Rogan from bus and rail company, Translink, said: "Incidents of this sort had become significantly less common.

"But it simply means that when it happens people do have a greater expectation and there is greater frustration."

Last June an explosion damaged the railway line between Belfast and Dublin.

The dissident republican Real IRA were blamed for that attack.