Loyalist paramilitaries have been blamed for a wave of bomb alerts in Belfast overnight and this morning that have brought traffic across the city to a standstill.
British army bomb disposal experts were sent to examine cars abandoned at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic school on the Ballysillen Road, and the M1 road between Lisburn and Broadway has been closed due to a similar alert.
There are also alerts at Kennedy Way, at the junction of the Falls Road and Springfield Road in west Belfast and in the White Abbey. Many of the alerts involve abandoned cars with gas cylinders visible inside, police said.
A number of controlled explosions were carried out on a suspicious car in Belfast overnight. British army technical officers were called to examine the vehicle on the Ormeau Road. The incident, believed to be outside Sinn Féin offices, was later declared a hoax.
Another suspicious vehicle examined in the city overnight was also declared a hoax by police. The vehicle was parked outside Dundonald house on the Upper Newtownards Road in the east of the city.
North Belfast Sinn Féin member Mr Gerry Kelly said the alerts across Belfast was the Ulster Defence Association "flexing their muscles after the disturbances in Maghaberry on Wednesday night".
"These bomb alerts are part of a well-planned campaign and are designed to cause maximum disruption.
"The fact is that the UDA cessation has been in effect over for a number of years and that organisation has been involved in an orchestrated campaign of violence against the wider Catholic community. It is in this context that we must view these latest actions," he added.
SDLP Spokesperson on Justice, Mr Alban Maginness said: "It is completely unacceptable that we should be subjected to these bomb alerts.
"It was obviously a well organised and well orchestrated plan to disable the city and impede those on their way to work and school. I utterly condemn this activity," he said.
"It would appear that the UDA is responsible for the alerts that were designed to coincide with the appalling rioting by Loyalists inside Maghaberry jail. The UDA is obviously attempting to heighten tensions outside the prison as well as inside."
