Counter terror police detain Co Tyrone man and a lorry in Milton Keynes over booby trap bomb death of Ronan Kerr
Detectives investigating the murder by paramilitaries of a Catholic police recruit in Northern Ireland have arrested a man in England.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that a 22-year-old originally from Omagh, Co Tyrone had been detained in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
A PSNI spokesman said the arrest was made by officers from the North West England Counter Terrorism Unit at the request of their colleagues in Northern Ireland. The suspect had been taken to a police station in England for questioning.
A number of searches were carried out earlier on Monday in Omagh and Cumbria concerning the murder of Constable Ronan Kerr in April 2011. The PSNI spokesman added that a number of items were seized for examination during the operation, including a lorry which had been stopped in Milton Keynes.
Kerr died after a booby trap bomb device attached to his car exploded outside his home in Omagh. The 25-year-old police officer was the second PSNI member to be killed by dissident republican paramilitaries since 2009.
A terror unit that formerly belonged to the Provisional IRA's East Tyrone Brigade is thought to have been behind Kerr's killing. This unit has now merged with a new republican terror alliance styling itself as the new IRA. It is comprised of several breakaway units from PIRA, the Real IRA and Republican Action Against Drugs in Derry.