Security alert in Co Fermangh

A number of roads are closed in Co Fermanagh on Wednesday evening due to a third security alert in less than a month.

It comes after a suspicious object found close to St Joseph’s Primary School in Donagh was reported to police earlier on Wednesday.

A number of businesses have been forced to closed but no homes have been evacuated.

The crossroads of Royal Oak   Road and Lettergreen   Road in the village have been closed.

At Ballagh Crossroads the Dernawilt Road is closed and traffic is being diverted along the Ballagh Road and Cloghegaddy Road

At Kilnabrock Road Crossroads traffic being diverted along the Carneyhome Road and Mulnahonn Road.

Last week, a three day security was sparked over a suspected beer keg bomb which later turned out to be an “elaborate hoax”.

A “beer keg with wires sticking out of it” had been examined by the Army bomb squad over nearly three days.

The Clogh Road near Rosslea had been closed to traffic after a suspicious object was found on Tuesday, March 26.

Police carried out searches for possible boob-trap or secondary devices in the area.

A number of homes had to be evacuated in the area.

District Commander Chief Supt Pauline Shields said she recognised the inconvenience the policing operation may cause to residents however, she said her priority “was to ensure the safety of the local community and to protect everyone”.

She said had police been dealing with a viable device there could have been “devastating consequences.”

“Once again our community has been disrupted and the lives of residents put at risk by a cowardly element intent on causing as much disruption as they can.

“This complex operation has tied up resources in this local area, with officers who should be out serving the local community, delivering the community policing the people in this area want,” she added.

UUP MLA Tom Elliott said those behind this latest alert and the bomb last week were “enemies of the community” in Fermanagh.

He said the alert was causing “major disruption” in the area.

“Along with wanting to kill and injure, those republican terrorists also wish to cause as much disruption to the community as possible,” said the former UUP leader.

The previous week, a 60 kg beer keg was left in an abandoned car was defused by Army technical officers.

The viable device was made safe by Army technical officers in the Derrylin Road.

Police said early investigations suggest the car bomb was destined for Lisnaskea PSNI station.

However, in a statement to The Guardian newspaper and UTV, dissident republican group Oglaigh na hEireann (ONH) said it left the device and its intended target was the Lough Erne Golf Resort where the G8 summit is to be held this June.