An individual strolling through a country park received the fright of his life after happening upon a stash of explosives and bomb making materials, hidden by suspected terrorists.
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Officers found several small plastic barrels buried in a wooded area of the park.
It included items used to make under-car booby-trap bombs, understood to be similar to that used in an attack on a prison officer in Belfast on Friday.
All of these items will be subjected to a detailed forensic examination.
‘I would ask the public to remain vigilant, wherever they are and whatever they are doing.
In separate incidents on Saturday, officers found two viable explosive devices in residential streets in west Belfast.
The victim, a long-serving officer based at Hydebank Wood Young Offenders Centre in south Belfast who works as a trainer for new recruits to the NI Prison Service, had just left home to drive to work.
‘If people report suspicious activity to police, we will act on it to keep people safe.
“They have now confirmed that when they went searching they found a number of small barrels containing partially constructed bombs, other bomb making components and explosives”, he said.
Separately on Friday, a prison guard was injured by an explosive device placed under his van in an attack attributed to dissident republicans.
Following the explosion, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Stephen Martin warned that the territory faces a “severe threat” from “people within dissident republican groupings” in the run-up to the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.
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Northern Ireland remained part of the United Kingdom, a division that remains at the heart of the disagreement between pro-British loyalists and republicans, who want a united Ireland.
