The PSNI has warned a prominent dissident republican that loyalists may have planted a bomb under his car.
It is understood the West Belfast man was visited at his home by police officers on Monday evening and advised to review his personal security.
In a written ‘threat message’ the PSNI said: “Police have received an anonymous report that loyalist paramilitaries may have planted a device under the car of (a named person and address).
“Police believe that this may refer to you and you are advised to review your personal security.”
The Irish News understands that at the time the threat was delivered the man’s car was at a repair garage.
Solicitor Gavin Booth, of Phoenix Law, said the “threat on the life of our client” needs to be “urgently withdrawn”.
“Our client is rightly concerned given the specific nature of the threat against him and others in this community,” he said.
“We will rightly be seeking more information from PSNI on what steps they will now take to ensure our client is rightly protected from loyalist paramilitaries, who seem intent on provoking harm.”
The development comes during a period of heightened republican and loyalist paramilitary activity across the north.
Just last week two PSNI officers escaped injury after their car was targeted in a roadside explosion in Strabane, Co Tyrone.
That attack has been linked to the New IRA.
On Sunday a delivery driver was hijacked at gunpoint in Derry and the driver forced to take his car to a PSNI station in the Waterside area of the city.
The PSNI later said an elaborate hoax was made to look like a car bomb. The New IRA has also been linked to that attack.
Last week eight handguns and three pipe bombs were found as part of a police operation targeting the East Belfast UVF.
Assorted bullets, balaclavas and UVF flags were also seized.
Four men have been charged in relation to the seizures.
Earlier this year simmering loyalist tensions linked to the Northern Ireland Protocol also threatened to spill over.
In March Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney was forced to abandon a peace building event in north Belfast after a hoax security alert, which was later blamed on the UVF.
Days later the UDA was linked to a major security alert targeting north-south train services while the Mid Ulster UVF is suspected of involvement after a hoax alert pub in Warrenpoint, Co Down.
The following month on-ceasefire republican group Óglaigh na hÉireann threatened to target loyalist leadership figures if nationalists or republicans were attacked as part of their anti-protocol campaign.
The message was delivered during an address at an Easter commemoration in Belfast, which included armed and masked men.
“We continue to monitor the activities of UVF and UDA in light of recent actions, and if loyalists target republican and nationalist communities, we will target loyalist leadership figures," the statement said.
Last month the Loyalist Communities Council, an umbrella group for the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando warned of “dire consequences” if the absence of devolution resulted in joint authority involving the Irish and British governments.
Chief constable Simon Byrne later said police have not “seen any corroboration of a heightened threat of violence and disorder from loyalist paramilitaries”.
A spokeswoman for the PSNI said: “We do not discuss the security of individuals and no inference should be drawn from this.
“However, if we receive information that a person’s life may be at risk we will inform them accordingly.
“We never ignore anything which may put an individual at risk.”
