A civilian police worker escaped injury today when a booby-trap bomb fell off his car in Co Tyrone.
The attack, blamed on dissident republicans, is the third such attack within a week in the North.
It is understood the man was driving his car along Sweep Road in Cookstown when the suspicious item fell off the vehicle at around 8am, prompting a major security alert.
Around 100 residents, a local creche and a number of businesses were evacuated.
Last week, viable devices planted under the cars of an British army major and a policewoman in separate incidents in Co Down also failed to explode.
In another attack last Tuesday, a 200lb bomb left in a hijacked taxi detonated outside a police station in Londonderry, causing substantial damage but no injuries.
SDLP Assembly member Patsy McGlone condemned the latest incident.
"Campaigns of violence and intimidation had no justification in the past and have no justification now," he said.
"We cannot allow another generation of victims to be created by those with no regard for the future of this country or its people.
"The thoughts and prayers of the entire Cookstown community are with the victims of this outrage.
"If putting people out of their homes, if disrupting businesses, if putting young children out of a creche is liberating Ireland, then it's a liberation we can do without."
PA