A suspicious object which sparked a security alert in a residential estate in the northern outskirts of Belfast was a “viable pipe bomb-type device”, say police.

Several homes were evacuated in Hollybrook Crescent, Newtownabbey, during the operation on Monday night.

Army Technical Officers made safe the pipe bomb.

It has now been taken away for forensic examination.

All evacuated residents have been allowed to return to their homes and the road has been reopened to traffic.