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| - Northern Irish police said Thursday they had found a bomb attached to a truck following a tip-off on Brexit day about a device bound for a ferry to mainland Britain. Dissident republicans were blamed as police said they received a report on January 31 -- the day the UK left the European Union -- of the device on a truck in Belfast docks, due to take a ferry to Scotland. Searches were conducted, nothing was found and the ferry arrived safely in Scotland. But on Monday, a further report said the device had been attached to a truck belonging to a particular haulage company. It was found inland at an industrial estate in Lurgan, southwest of Belfast, and was made safe by British army bomb disposal experts. "Dissident republicans deliberately and recklessly attached an explosive device to a heavy goods vehicle," said Detective Superintendent Sean Wright, from the police's terrorism investigation unit. "Had this vehicle travelled and the device had exploded at any point... the risks posed do not bear thinking about. "Once again, dissident republicans have shown a total disregard for the community, for businesses and for wider society." Dissident republicans seek Northern Ireland's integration into the Republic of Ireland through violent means. The UK deems the Northern Ireland-related terror threat level to be severe -- the second-highest of five levels -- meaning an attack is considered "highly likely". The United Kingdom left the EU on January 31, with Northern Ireland a major sticking point in three years of Brexit withdrawal agreement negotiations between London and Brussels. A solution had to be found that would keep the UK's only land border free-flowing between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, an EU member state. An open border was a provision of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended more than three decades of violence over British rule. In a transition period, Britain will adhere to EU rules until the end of the year, when a controversial dual customs system is introduced. The Republic of Ireland has a general election on Saturday. Mainstream republicans Sinn Fein topped the last opinion poll. Northern Ireland's police chief Simon Byrne gave the force's oversight body a briefing on the incident at their monthly meeting on Thursday. "The fact is this could have ended up on a ferry," Sinn Fein board member Gerry Kelly told the UK's Press Association news agency. "If it had exploded, you are talking about catastrophic loss of life." Asked if he thought the attack was timed to coincide with Brexit, Kelly said: "From the detail we have here that's a possibility but whatever the reason, there is no logic around it except to cause death and destruction." Ulster Unionist Party justice spokesman Doug Beattie said it was a "very deliberate attempt to cause an explosion on a ferry." rjm/phz/har
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