Explosion caused by fifth device found in single day

GARDAÍ ARE investigating an explosion at a house in Ashbourne, Co Meath, early on Saturday morning, which occurred without warning, and after an Army bomb disposal team had been called to investigate the device. No one was injured by the explosion.

The device responsible was the fifth to be dealt with by an Army bomb disposal team on Friday.

They had been called to the house in Ashbourne at 10.40pm on Friday to investigate the device, which went off at 1.30am on Saturday, causing extensive damage to the rear of the house.

Four suspect devices had been dealt with in Dublin earlier on Friday.

Gardaí believe that at least three of them were linked to the drugs trade.

Two of the devices were viable pipe bombs.

They bring to just over 150 the number of times Army bomb disposal teams have been called out this year, compared with 98 cases in all of last year.

The first of yesterday’s finds was made in Coolock.

Gardaí carrying out a planned search found a grenade on open ground at the back of houses on Grove Lane off Malahide Road.

The grenade was spent, and the area was declared safe at 10.40am.

The Garda search team found a number of other items concealed with the grenade, including cocaine valued at €75,000, small amounts of heroin and cannabis, ammunition, an imitation sawn-off shotgun and a Samurai sword.

The searches targeted members of a drugs gang from the Coolock area. The second and third devices were discovered in Ronanstown and Ballyfermot, both in west Dublin. Gardaí believe those two incidents are linked.

In Ronanstown, a pipe bomb was found under a car at Foxton Avenue at 10am.

The Army’s bomb disposal team carried out a controlled explosion and declared the area safe by 11.05am.

At 11.20am, another pipe bomb was spotted under a car outside a house on Ballyneety Road, Ballyfermot. The bomb disposal experts made it safe by 11.55am.

The fourth device was discovered by council workers at Oliver Bond flats in Dublin’s south inner city. Army bomb disposal experts travelling into the city centre from the Ballyfermot pipe bomb find examined the package and declared it a hoax at 12.30pm.