Garda station evacuated after man brings in pipe bomb in his boot

A Garda station in Cork city had to be evacuated for a period yesterday evening after a member of the public inadvertently brought a viable pipe bomb on to the property.

At about 5.10pm a group of children found the pipe bomb while playing on a communal area at Churchfield Avenue on the city's northside.

The children – who ranged in age from six to 12 – passed the bomb around among themselves before they alerted their parents who also handled the device.

One of the parents, a man in his 30s, not knowing what the device was, brought it to Gurranebraher Garda Station in the boot of his car.

At the station, he asked a garda to come out and look at the device in his car. Gardaí immediately evacuated the station and notified the bomb disposal team at Collins Barracks who travelled to the scene and examined the device.

Army bomb disposal experts made safe the device and handed it over to gardaí who have sent it to Dublin for analysis. Gardaí say they are keeping an open mind on who was responsible for the pipe bomb and who the intended target may have been.