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Queen's security on high alert after 'two bombs' are found in Dublin hours before historic Royal vis


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Queen's security on high alert after 'two bombs' are found in Dublin hours before historic Royal visit

 

 

By Daily Mail Reporters

 

Last updated at 11:27 AM on 17th May 2011

 

 

 

  • Pipe bomb detonated after being found in luggage compartment of a coach
  • Second hoax bomb found at a tram station in Inchicore near Dublin
  • Foreign office says Royal visit will go ahead despite bomb discoveries
  • Biggest-ever security operation in Republic of Ireland ahead of Royal visit
  • Bomb caller in London used a known Republican codeword

Dublin was on high alert ahead of the Queen's visit this morning after a bomb was discovered near the Irish capital and a second suspect package was found.

A 'viable improvised explosive device' found in the luggage compartment of a bus in Maynooth, just outside the city, was blown up in a controlled blast in the early hours of this morning, an army spokesman said.

As Ireland's biggest-ever security operation is carried out, a second package was found at a tram station in Inchicore, Dublin, which later turned out to be a hoax.

 

 

article-1387878-0C1A3F8800000578-99_634x450.jpg Bomb disposal teams detonated a 'viable' improvised explosive device in the early hours of this morning

 

 

 

article-1387878-0C1A3FCA00000578-44_634x344.jpg The device was found in the luggage compartment of a coach in Maynooth, near Dublin last night

 

Hours before the Queen was due to arrive, bomb disposal teams were called in at 11.10pm last night after the explosives were found.

Thirty passengers had been on board the coach when it was stopped and searched 40 miles from the city.

 

The bus - operated by the state-owned Bus Eireann company - had been stopped outside a hotel, apparently after the tip-off.

 

Shortly before 2am it was made safe and the remains of the device were handed to the Irish police for investigation.

 

Police are patrolling the streets, parking has been forbidden in many areas as large parts of the city are closed off over security fears.

 

 

article-1387612-0A587CCD000005DC-57_306x474.jpg Royal visit: The Queen is due to make a historic visit to Ireland today

 

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny insisted that there was no chance the Royal visit would be cancelled - and said the threat is minimal.

 

He said: 'They've put in place a comprehensive security operation. You'll recall we've had American Presidents here before, a Pope.

'So obviously while there have been incidents, the Gardai (police) have been able to deal with those.'

Yesterday there was a coded bomb warning in London stoking fears that Irish dissidents are preparing to mark the Queen’s State visit to Ireland with an attack on the British mainland.

Security services in both countries were on high alert after Irish republican terrorists used a recognised code word in a warning message to Scotland Yard.

The ambiguous threat did not specify a location or time but sparked several operations during a tense day in central London. Officials said the message, made from a telephone in the Irish Republic on Sunday night, was the first coded warning in Britain for at least ten years.

A swathe of the capital between Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square was shut down for almost eight hours as jittery police dealt with a series of suspicious incidents. Former security minister Lord West said the latest bomb warning was ‘extremely worrying’ and warned that security officials were aware of ‘sleeper cells’ who want to mount fresh attacks.

He said: ‘We know very well that a tiny number of dissidents are absolutely obsessed with trying to revert to the bloodshed, mayhem and blood massacres of the past.

‘They are wrong. The bulk of Irish people do not want that.’

Security sources have repeatedly warned that dissidents ‘aspire’ to mounting a bloody attack and the threat level was raised to ‘substantial’ last year.

 

article-1387878-0C1AE30F00000578-457_634x845.jpg

There are concerns a massive lockdown in Dublin ahead of the Queen’s arrival today could force extremists to seek ‘softer’ targets.

 

 

The city was at the centre of the biggest security operation in the Irish Republic’s history as the Queen’s four-day state visit gets under way.

More than 8,000 Irish police and 2,000 troops will be deployed in a £26million operation amid fears republican groups will try to make political capital from the trip.

Some groups have been angered by the Queen’s itinerary which includes a wreath-laying ceremony today at Dublin’s Garden of Remembrance, which honours all those who fought for Irish freedom, and a visit to Croke Park, scene of a massacre in 1920.

article-1387612-0C18C51900000578-309_634x413.jpg

 

Precautions: Members of the public walk past phone boxes taped shut for security reasons by police ahead of the Queen's state visit to Ireland

article-1387612-0C14436000000578-456_634x377.jpg This message has been daubed on a wall in the centre of Dublin ahead of the Queen's visit to the Irish capital scheduled for today

The Queen will be protected by 120 armed British police officers as she becomes the first British monarch to visit southern Ireland since King George V in 1911.

Last night 500 troops created a secure ring around Baldonnel Fortress, the military aerodrome where the Queen is due to arrive today. And a Giraffe air defence system – used to detect low-altitude aircraft targets – is on standby to protect Farmleigh, the country estate where the Queen is staying.

Last month the Real IRA said the Queen was ‘wanted for war crimes’ and called on ‘all self-respecting Irishmen and women’ to resist the ‘insult’ of her visit.

 

 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1387878/Queens-Ireland-visit-Security-high-alert-2-bombs-Dublin.html#ixzz1MbeFrdJh

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