A TEENAGER has said he has been left shaken after a hoax pipe bomb was placed under his car in Co Antrim.
Ballycastle man Kevin Keenan (18) said he does not know why was targeted after the alert in the Main Street area of Cushendun at around 11am on Saturday.
The object was later declared a hoax by the British army bomb squad and removed for examination.
It is understood it was placed behind a rear wheel of his car which was parked outside his girlfriend's house.
The alarm is believed to have been raised by a local man who spotted the suspicious object.
Mr Keenan said he and his girlfriend escaped from the house after a police officer told them to get out.
“I was in complete shock, It was sickening,” he said.
The Catholic man said he does not know why he has been singled out.
“I believe loyalists have something against me or someone has something against me,” he said.
“I don’t understand what they have against me because I have done nothing wrong.
“To think someone was that close to me who wants me killed it’s scary, that’s how close they can get to you without you knowing they are there.”
The alert unfolded just hours after independent Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Padraig McShane revealed that he and two other men had recently been warned to step up their security.
Mr McShane said he believed the threats were made by loyalists.
The councillor made headlines last month when he was arrested following a confrontation with bandsmen and police during a July Twelfth parade in Ballycastle.
He said the hoax alert “is obviously a worrying development and an escalation in loyalist paramilitary activity in the area”.
Mr McShane also called for unionists to urge loyalist paramilitaries to “cease and desist immediately before this escalates further”.
“I also urge republicans in Ballycastle to remain vigilant about their security,” he added.
Sinn Féin assembly member Oliver McMullan also said he “totally condemned the incident".
“It put a lot of people to a lot of bother and is something, whatever the reason behind it, is not called for at all,” he said.
“They should be reflecting on what they are doing and the problems they cause for the community."
