Newly merged republican terrorist group leaves booby-trapped bicycle and pipe bomb in grounds of council offices
Dissident republicans have left a booby-trap bomb on a bicycle in an attempt to kill members of the security forces in Derry.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed on Friday that the device and a pipe bomb were left in the grounds of Derry city council's headquarters on the banks of theFoyle river.
Army bomb disposal experts were called in overnight to make the two devices safe after the newly merged terrorist group that calls itself a new IRA made another attempt to ambush police and troops in the city.
The PSNI said a Foyle search and rescue volunteer who lifted the holdall containing one of the bombs and looked inside it could have been killed.
A number of houses close to the scene were evacuated.
All roads in the area reopened to traffic on Friday following the alert but the police search and forensic operation was continuing.
The chairman of Foyle search and rescue, Craig Smith, said the volunteer lifted the bag and "saw a metal pipe-like device inside. She set down the bag and walked away and knew not to reach into it. It was very frightening for her. There were three people standing around the bag; all of them could have been killed."
Up to 200 staff working at Derry city council and 100 workers at Fujitsu, which has offices next door, were told not to come in to work on Friday.
Derry has been an active area for this new IRA group which is made up of the Real IRA, independent republican units across the north of Ireland and Republican Action Against Drugs. The latter is an armed vigilante group that has shot dozens of men it accused of drug dealing in Derry.