'An assault on the community'

Sinn Fein Councillor Johnny McGibbon said: "This was a senseless and pointless attack which could have had a disastrous outcome.

"There was a young child in this household and those responsible showed no thought or sense of responsibility for this child or any of the other children in the area who are on school holidays and out playing.

"There is no justification or rationale for this incident and we have to be thankful that no child picked up the viable device."

The Loughside Councillor also highlighted the disruption to the lives of the residents of the Wakehurst and Shankill estates for an entire afternoon and the waste of policing resources which should have been dealing with crimes of burglary, theft and assault but instead were tied down for hours in dealing with this 'immature' attack.

He added: "Whoever was responsible for planting these pipe bombs has to accept their culpability in endangering the local community, wasting valuable policing resources and disrupting the lives of ordinary people. The sooner they are caught the better and anyone who spotted anything out of the ordinary within the vicinity should pass that information on to the authorities.”

Residents in the area said they were 'shocked' when they heard about the evacuation because of the device on Thursday.

Joanne Gillespie, secretary of the Shankill and Wakehurst residents association said she condemned those who put the devices in place.

She said: "Our priority was to ensure the safety of the residents and to make sure they had somewhere to go during the disturbance.

"The police said they would try to be as quick as they could and we would appeal to those responsible to stop."

Local police chief, Jason Murphy branded the actions last week as 'madness'.

He said: "These people showed a total disregard for the public's safety.

"These devices were left in open areas where anyone could access them and those responsible left them in their own communities - it's madness.

"Someone could have been seriously injured or killed had they gone off and I would appeal to the community to continue working with us and report anything suspicious."

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at Lurgan on 0845 600 8000. Information can also be passed anonymously to the Crimestoppers charity by calling 0800 555 111.