A huge car bomb left near a primary school in Northern Ireland could have inflicted death and destruction on the same scale as the Omagh atrocity, PSNI chief constable Hugh Orde said today.
The 300lb explosive device abandoned in the Co Down town of Castlewellan would have wreaked unimaginable carnage if it had gone off, according to Mr Orde.
The bomb, believed to have been planted by dissident republicans, was defused by British army technical officers on Saturday after a five-day security operation prompted by a telephone bomb warning from a dissident group.
Mr Orde today revealed the destructive potential of the home made device after his monthly meeting with the Northern Ireland Policing Board in Belfast.
“People need to cast back to the Omagh outrage committed by dissidents, it wasn’t a bomb much different in terms of size and scale to the one they tried to put down only last week,” he said.
The incident comes after a series of attacks by dissident republicans on PSNI officers in the last 18 months.
Mr Orde said while the terrorists’ primary target remained the police, the incident in Castlewellan proved they "do not care" who else they killed in the process.
“They are criminals, they are determined to kill whoever gets in the way of this. We know their determination is to kill a police officer, the point in this one was the blatant disregard, looking at its size and potential scale, to kill anyone and I think communities need to reflect on that and anything they know they need to tell us or anyone they have confidence in to make sure we get that information.”
PA