04/04/2011

'Clamped Car' Alert In North Belfast

A Shankill community centre is being used for temporary shelter after a suspicious object has been found beneath a vehicle close to a police station in north Belfast.

People put out of their homes in the loyalist area are being directed to the Woodvale Community Centre in Ohio Street as Army bomb experts are examining the object in Tennent Street, close to the PSNI base there.

The North's police said this afternoon that several homes and businesses in the area have been evacuated and the road closed to motorists.

However, the police station is still operational, at present.

Commenting, the DUP representative, William Humphrey said: "A car was clamped outside the Tennent Street Police Station because it had no tax disc on it.

"When Council staff arrived on the scene to inspect the vehicle they became concerned that there was a suspicious object underneath it.

"They brought this to the attention of the police in the station and bomb disposal officers have been called to the scene.

"I hope that the security alert will soon be over. If this is established as being a sinister device, it underscores once again that there are people within society who want to drag us backwards," he said.

This is the third such second security alert today as two are already underway in Co Armagh after a suspicious object was discovered in Craigavon and waste ground at a disused factory in Lurgan is also being searched after reports of a bomb being left.

(BMcC/GK)

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