Dissident republicans target Waterfoot hotel with ‘viable bomb’

A DEVICE which forced the evacuation of a Derry hotel yesterday was a “viable device”.

Police had initially believed the device at the Waterfoot Hotel in Derry’s Waterside areawas an elaborate hoax.

But today Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton has confirmed that following a further examination, the device was found to be “viable”.

“A controlled explosion was carried out on the device and initial checks by ATO suggested that it was an elaborate hoax,” said ACC Hamilton.

“However, following further examination the object has now been declared a viable Improvised Explosive Device.

“This device had the potential to harm anyone in the area and those involved have shown total disregard for human life.

“We are obviously very thankful that this attack was thwarted and that no one was killed or seriously injured.”

There were similar alerts at the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh and Belfast Metropolitan College were found nothing untoward.

All three locations were due to hotel police meet-and-greet sessions with potential recruits.

The events in Omagh and Belfast went ahead today. A small group of dissidents protested at the Belfast college.

The familiarisation day in Derry has now been moved to next Saturday as it clashed with a wedding and a planned dissident republican protest.

The alert in Omagh led to hundreds of people being evacuated from the town centre on Friday, sparking memories of the Omagh bomb atrocity in August 1998 when 29 people, including two unborn children, were massacred.

Mr Hamilton condemned those behind what he described as “shameless” security alerts and said that the level of interest shown in the jobs showed that people were not being deterred.

“Clearly there are people out there in today’s society who are still intent on targeting our police service and causing harm to our communities,” he said.

“We know, however, that the actions of these few misguided individuals will not stop people pursuing a career in policing.

“In fact we’ve already had approximately 2,400 applications in this current recruitment process.”