HOAXERS ATTEMPT TO DISRUPT MEMORIAL
Hoaxers attempt to disrupt memorial
SICK hoaxers tried to stop relatives of the Omagh bomb dead from getting to Saturday's anniversary service.
A bomb alert on the route to the heartbroken town disrupted people travelling from Buncrana and Londonderry who were on their way to Omagh for the afternoon service.
One suspect car was abandoned outside Sion Mills RUC station, on the main Londonderry-Strabane Road. It was one of two taxis hijacked earlier at gunpoint in Strabane.
Superintendent Richard Russell, RUC Sub Divisional Commander for Strabane, said that it had been a pathetic attempt to disrupt traffic travelling to Omagh on the day of Saturday's memorial service.
"Obviously it was designed to cause maximum inconvenience to people travelling between Strabane and Omagh. It is doubly significant that it was the day when the memorial service for all those who were killed and injured in the Omagh bombing only a year ago was going on."
"We have had a spate of these recently in Strabane in which republican paramilitaries have been placing hoax bombs and then criticising the police and security force response," added Supt Russell.
He also said: "These hoax bomb calls are callously carried out by vicious people who have no regard for public safety or the disruption caused."
Superintendent Russell said that police will rigorously investigate all bomb calls with a view to arresting offenders and placing them before the courts.
Life in Strabane's commercial heart and cases at the local courthouse have all been disrupted by the wave of hoax calls.
SICK hoaxers tried to stop relatives of the Omagh bomb dead from getting to Saturday's anniversary service.
A bomb alert on the route to the heartbroken town disrupted people travelling from Buncrana and Londonderry who were on their way to Omagh for the afternoon service.
One suspect car was abandoned outside Sion Mills RUC station, on the main Londonderry-Strabane Road. It was one of two taxis hijacked earlier at gunpoint in Strabane.
Superintendent Richard Russell, RUC Sub Divisional Commander for Strabane, said that it had been a pathetic attempt to disrupt traffic travelling to Omagh on the day of Saturday's memorial service.
"Obviously it was designed to cause maximum inconvenience to people travelling between Strabane and Omagh. It is doubly significant that it was the day when the memorial service for all those who were killed and injured in the Omagh bombing only a year ago was going on."
"We have had a spate of these recently in Strabane in which republican paramilitaries have been placing hoax bombs and then criticising the police and security force response," added Supt Russell.
He also said: "These hoax bomb calls are callously carried out by vicious people who have no regard for public safety or the disruption caused."
Superintendent Russell said that police will rigorously investigate all bomb calls with a view to arresting offenders and placing them before the courts.
Life in Strabane's commercial heart and cases at the local courthouse have all been disrupted by the wave of hoax calls.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/235
Published Date: 16-Aug-99
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