'SOME EVIL IN THE WORLD'

The concert, in aid of Friends of the Cancer Centre at the City Hospital in Belfast, was being held at the Vintage Bistro in the Ballybrakes Business Park with almost 300 people present.

Around 9 p.m. last Thursday night, police arrived at the venue after receiving a telephone call via the Samaritans saying that a bomb had been planted.

The Bistro was immediately evacuated and a search carried out. Nothing was found and although it only took half an hour, people were resigned to the fact that their night had been ruined.

Organisers say the conert will now have to be re-scheduled and have condemned those who brought sadness and disappointment to many.

A facebook site was inundated with messages of condemnation. One contributor described those who made the call as "sick" while another said there were "some evil people in the world."

Local girl, Joanne Coyles, had planned the concert for weeks to coincide with the first anniversary of the death, through cancer, of her aunt, Jennifer Coyles at the age of 52. Jennifer's daughter, Jane Coyles, had travelled from England especially for the event.

Describing it as a nightmare, Joanne said when the police arrived she thought it was some sort of joke.

"We simply had to abandon things and everyone just trudged away in disbelief. Why would anyone want to target a concert that was for such a worthy charity and in memory of my aunt? I keep asking myself that question and cannot come up with an answer," Joanne told the Times.

She was full of praise for the owner of the Bistro, Nicola Craig, who, Joanne said, had gone out of her way to try and make sure the night was a success.

"Nicola was so helpful and provided refreshments for the artistes. We couldn't praise her enough," Joanne added.

Inspector David Anderson confirmed that a telephone call had been received by the PSNI via the Samaritans and that immediate action was taken.

"This was somewhat unusual and very unfortunate. The organisers were hugely disappointed and we can understand why. The concert was for a worthy cause and to disrupt it in this way has to be condemned," he said.

Inspector Anderson praised everyone for their co-operation and said the safety of all was paramount. The hall had been cleared after half an hour.

Nicola Craig, who runs the Vintage Bistro, said she was "absolutely gutted" for the Coyles family who she described as "amazing."

"They were a pleasure to work with and we have made good friends out of it. Last night meant a lot to them and although it benefitted me from staging the event in a commercial sense, my heart was in it too.

"Imagine a young artist coming from Donegal to find this sort of thing happening, just the same as Jane Coyles coming from England. What sort of message does that send out?" Nicola said.

She added that she felt nothing but sadness for all those people who were in wheelchairs and had varying degrees of disability.

"The look of terror in their faces was dreadful, but I am thankful to God that we got everyone out. Those who did this spoiled what had been a lovely atmosphere," Nicola said.

Organises are planning to re-schedule the event at a later date and at the same venue.

"We have 34 raffle prizes and we will have to make a decision on what we do with them probably make the draw and publish the winners. We had sold 200 tickets for the night and others were coming along to pay at the door. We had close on 300 people there," Joanne said.

So far, almost 2000 has been raised.