Loyalists last night claimed responsibility for planting a primed car-bomb in a seaside town crowded with thousands of people celebrating a festival in Co Antrim.
A timing unit, detonator and two cylinders of flammable liquid were discovered in a car during the annual Auld Lammas Fair in Ballycastle yesterday.
The Red Hand Defenders, a cover name used by the UDA and LVF, said in a phone call to a Belfast newsroom that they planted the bomb. A recognised code word was given.
Police say they began evacuating crowds from Castle Street in the town after a constable smelt fuel. It was only later that a telephone warning was received.
The bomb could have created a huge fireball in a crowded area, according to the RUC district commander for the Ballycastle area, Supt John Bustard. "Had an alert police officer not found the device, the telephone warning, which did subsequently arrive, may well have come too late," he said.
British army technical officers made the device safe.
An estimated 250,000 people attended the two-day fair, one of the oldest festivals in Ireland.
Supt Bustard condemned those behind the attack. "For generations people from all communities in Northern Ireland have enjoyed the festivity associated with the Auld Lammas Fair, and this is in stark contrast to the motives of would-be killers who seem to want nothing more than a return the bloodshed of the past 30 years," he said.
The local DUP Assembly member, Mr Ian Paisley jnr, said he was appalled anyone would attempt to bomb a holiday town at the height of its tourist season. "Had this bomb detonated it would have made the Omagh atrocity look like a minor incident," he said.
The director of district services of Moyle Council, Mr Peter Mawdsley, who helped organise the fair, said Castle Street had been busy.
"It's one of the routes into the fair, so there would have been a number of people passing it at any one time," he said.
Despite the security alert good weather, stalls, a funfair, street performers and horsetrading kept record crowds entertained.
"Monday was particularly busy, but we have had two glorious days so a quarter of a million visitors is probably not too far off the mark," Mr Mawdsley said.
Traditionally, the event has had strong links with Scotland, he said. "At the end of the season the Scots people came over and sold fish and in return got stock that they brought back to Scotland."
Horses have been the only stock traded at the fair in recent years.
As for the origin of the fair's name, Mr Mawdsley said: "No one really seems to know the meaning of Lammas, whether it's to do with Candlemas or something like that."