PSNI Report Bomb Outside Another School

Thu, 09 September 2010 Courtesy of: Police Federation for Northern Ireland

About 170 pupils were moved to a community centre after the object was found outside an unmanned police station opposite Crumlin Integrated Primary at 1100 BST on Wednesday.

About 30 families living in nearby Mill Road also had to leave their homes. They have now been allowed to return.

The device has been removed for examination.

Parents of children at the primary said they were "disgusted" that a suspicious object had been left so close to the school. School principal Christine Boal described the alert as a "step backwards".

"We're supposed to be building a shared community and this is definitely a step backwards for the entire community," she said. The school will be closed again on Thursday.

Alliance Antrim Councillor Alan Lawther said he was "shocked and disgusted" by the alert and said those responsible "must be taken off the streets by the police before somebody is killed".

"I am extremely worried that it comes two days after a pipe bomb was found by a child in a primary school in Antrim," he said.

"Nobody wants this violence on our streets, when will these people get that message?"

On Monday, an eight-year-old schoolboy at St Comgall's Primary School in Antrim, which is near Crumlin, was at the centre of an alert when he picked up a pipe bomb in the school playground.

The school was evacuated as the Army dealt with the device.