Man arrested over bomb hijacking

The man was arrested in the Claudy area on Sunday. A viable device was left in a hijacked vehicle outside Waterside police station in the city on the evening of Sunday November 20.

A delivery driver was hijacked by three masked men and made to drive his car to the station, where it was abandoned. It sparked a major security alert which led to some children not being able to get to school the next day.

Police initially said the object left in the car was an elaborate hoax, but later confirmed that it was a viable explosive device. Detectives previously said they were investigating a claim that the dissident republican group Arm na Poblachta was responsible.

A PSNI spokesman said the man was arrested under the Terrorism Act and taken to Musgrave Police Station for questioning. The spokesman said he was being questioned on suspicion of kidnapping and possession of a firearm in connection with a separate incident that is believed to have taken place in Claudy on November 10.

It is understood a man was threatened with a firearm and taken from premises on Main Street in the village by two masked men. The incident has echoes of a similar crime committed by loyalists earlier in the year, when a driver was forced to transport a hoax bomb to a location where Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney was speaking in Belfast.