The postman who delivered the letter bomb to the offices of the Public Prosecution Service in Derry on Monday last had only minutes before carried it through a nearby nursing home, it has emerged.
Foyle Fold residential home.
And it has also been revealed the postman alerted staff at the PPS office to the possibility the package he had delivered was a bomb and that the device lay over the weekend in the Royal Mail’s sorting office at Great James Street in the city.
PPS workers were evacuated from the building after the postal worker informed a member of staff of his suspicions about the package. It was dealt with by the army bomb disposal squad who confirmed it to be a “viable” device.
Charlie Kelly, of the Communications Workers Union which representatives postal workers, revealed the postman had the device in his sack for over an hour and before delivering it to the PPS office had visited the nearby Foyle Fold residential home for the elderly.
Mr Kelly said postal workers were “anxious” and “worried” about bombs being sent through the postal system and it was fortunate no one had been killed or injured.
Referring to the Derry PPS said: “It is a worrying time and it is only by the grace of God that it didn’t explode. It could have went off in the office or went off in the nursing home.”
To date, four letter bombs have been discovered throughout the North. The latest was delivered yesterday to Stormont Castle and had been addressed to Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers.
On Friday, two devices intercepted in sorting offices in the Belfast area had been addressed to PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott and Derry Chief Inspector Jon Burrows.
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