TEN FAMILIES were evacuated from their homes overnight in an explosives scare in the Co Donegal Border village of St Johnston.
Army bomb disposal experts yesterday dismantled the device, a pipe bomb attached to a five-gallon drum of petrol.
It partly exploded on Monday night but failed to ignite the fuel before its discovery by gardaí shortly before 9.30pm.
The remains of the device were handed by the bomb disposal team to gardaí for forensic examination.
The bomb was planted outside the home of a 26-year-old man in the townland of Transalla. He was seriously injured when shot in the neck on September 25th when four armed and masked men opened fire while he was sitting in his car outside his home. He managed to drive to a neighbour's house before being taken to Letterkenny General Hospital.
His girlfriend, who was in the car, was bundled into a van by the gang but was later freed two kilometres away. A dog that was also in the car was struck by a bullet and had to be treated by a vet but died later.
The Real IRA later admitted responsibility for the attack.
The man, from Creggan in Derry, moved to St Johnston only recently.
Gardaí have asked anyone with any information about the bomb attack to contact Letterkenny Garda station.