TOWN ON HIGH ALERT

A hoax device was discovered close to a school on the Lough Road.

And early yesterday morning police were forced to close Lake Street and North Street after a suspect device was discovered.

Staff and children had to be evacuated from the Lough Road Learning Centre as the army's bomb squad examined a suspect device in the hedge beside the school on Tuesday.

The road was closed for most of the day right to 5pm and traffic was diverted along Albert Street.

Police attended the scene just before 10am following a call from a member of the public.

Army Technical Officers (ATO) arrived on the scene soon afterwards and condu-

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-cted a thorough inspection of the device.

Two of the unit's robots were dispatched while soldiers and senior police officers watched on through a monitor.

One of the soldiers, clad in a specialist bomb suit, inspected the device.

Around 2pm it appeared as if the device had been either made safe or found to be a hoax, however, the police and army remained on the scene to collect forensic evidence for another three hours.

The alert ended just before 5pm when police declared the device a hoax.

Similar incidents occurred in Armagh and Belfast on Tuesday and a car bomb detonated on Monday night in Newry.

Councillor Carla Lockhart condemned those who planted the device, she said: "Disruption was caused to school children, traders and motorists.

"A community event also had to be cancelled in the town hall because of the alert.

"This is a small group of people who are disrupting their own community and we can not allow them to drag us back to the dark days."

A suspect device was found in Lake Street around 6.45am on Wednesday morning.

Police closed North Street and Lake Street causing wide-spread disruption during the morning rush.