A HOAX bomb left at the home of a serving PSNI officer's parents in Derry is the third such attack in the city in space of 24 hours.
The couple were forced to evacuate their home at Lone Moor Road yesterday morning when a suspect device was found near the front door.
Army bomb experts later declared the device as an elaborate hoax.
The incident yesterday followed hoax bomb attacks at the homes of parents of serving police officers in Creggan and Shantallow on Wednesday.
The hoax bomb attacks follow a period of heightened tensions in Derry’s Creggan area where police were accused of adopting a heavy-handed approach to house searches.
The police approach was raised last week by Sinn Féin’s Raymond McCartney and Elisha McCallion at a meeting with the PSNI.
Superintendent Gordon McCalmont appealed for information about the latest attack.
He said: “I can see how the reckless actions of a very small minority of people who clearly don’t care about the community have disrupted everyday life.”
Following yesterday’s incident, the couple's daughter said the attack was “uncalled for and unjustifiable.”
“I don’t think that anyone would want their parents or want to see their parents in this kind of situation," she said.
She said her parents contacted police when they saw the device outside the front door.
“My parents are both elderly; they are in their 60s and 70s. This is definitely not what should be acceptable.... People should be allowed to retire in peace now at the stage of life that they are in."
It is not the first time their home has been targeted. In 2011, a family car was destroyed in a petrol bomb attack. Three years earlier shots were fired through the front door of the Lone Moor Road property.
SDLP assembly member Mark H Durkan described the attacks as “sickening and reprehensible.”
“People cannot condemn the PSNI for ‘attacks’ on the community but then condone this type of activity that has wide repercussions and causes trauma and stress to many," he said.
Sinn Féin assembly member Raymond McCartney said those behind the attacks should “get off the backs of the people.”
“It is pensioners, young families, children, carers who are bearing the brunt of these actions," he said.
The incidents were also condemned by DUP assembly member Gary Middleton who blamed dissident republicans. UUP assembly member, Alan Chambers described those responsible as cowards.
“This is a cynical attempt to prevent Catholics from joining the police and it must be resisted,” he said.
The Police Federation described those behind the attacks as “dissident no-hopers.” Federation chairman Mark Lindsay said they had attempted to “intimidate, bully and terrorise” the entire community.
