News

Bomb alert may have targeted British soldiers

roads closed: The rural Legavallon Road area outside Drumsurn in Co Derry where police were informed of an explosive device being left. Inset, soldiers filmed earlier this year on a training exercise in the area may have been the target of a bomb alert                      Picture: Margaret McLaughlin
roads closed: The rural Legavallon Road area outside Drumsurn in Co Derry where police were informed of an explosive device being left. Inset, soldiers filmed earlier this year on a training exercise in the area may have been the target of a bomb alert roads closed: The rural Legavallon Road area outside Drumsurn in Co Derry where police were informed of an explosive device being left. Inset, soldiers filmed earlier this year on a training exercise in the area may have been the target of a bomb alert Picture: Margaret McLaughlin

British soldiers involved in training exercises in rural Co Derry may have been the target of a bomb alert.

The PSNI has urged people living in the Drumsurn area to be vigilant after reports that an explosive device had been left in the area.

Roads in the district, which is between Dungiven and Limavady, were closed last night several hours after police first raised the alert.

A PSNI helicopter carried out an aerial search.

The alert was sparked after a bomb warning was made to a local charity at around 2am on Wednesday using a codeword.

The search is understood to be focused on an area close to the junction of the Legavallon Road and Belraugh Road, close to the village of Drumsurn which sits on the edge of the Sperrin Mountain range.

The alert may have been targeted at British soldiers who regularly train in the isolated district.

Earlier this year members of the British army were filmed on patrol in the mainly nationalist Drumsurn district, sparking an angry response from Sinn Féin.

A spokesman for the British army later confirmed the soldiers were taking part in a training exercise and it is believed they were based at Magilligan, which is several miles away.

At any one time up to 5,000 British soldiers can be based in the north where two bases, Magilligan and Ballykinler in Co Down, are used as training centres for troops who are sent to conflict zones across the globe.

A British army spokesman last night said "there is constant training" carried out at both bases.

However, he declined to comment on the Co Derry alert saying it was a matter for the PSNI.

If a device is found it will be the second time members of the British army have been targeted by republicans in recent weeks.

Last month the ‘IRA’ claimed responsibility for placing a bomb under a van driven by an off-duty British soldier in north Belfast.

Yesterday's security alert was raised on Armistice Day - when Britain remembers soldiers killed during the First World War and other conflicts.

Military personnel trained in the north are currently serving in Afghanistan, Iraq and Africa.

In September Causeway Coast and Glens Sinn Féin councillor Brenda Chivers said local people had complained that the British army presence in the area was "terrifying" local children.

The councillor last night said the bomb warning has caused disruption locally.

"It’s very upsetting to the people of the area" she said.

2We thought those days had gone by and we don’t want a return to them.

"We totally condemn it and everybody is quiet concerned about it."