'New IRA behind Strabane mortar bomb' - PSNI
A mortar bomb recovered in an Irish border town was intended to be fired into a police station, a senior officer has said.
Dissident republican group the New IRA was blamed after a passer-by found the explosive device on a wall in Strabane, Co Tyrone, on Saturday morning.
Dozens of officers were engaged in a search for bomb-making material in nearby Londonderry on Monday morning, close to where journalist Lyra McKee was shot dead.
Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Superintendent Gordon McCalmont said Saturday's discovery is not being linked with Brexit but that the incident, the seventh this year, is cause for concern.
He warned: "It is designed to kill and harm people.''
The prospect of a no-deal Brexit is being monitored closely by dissident republicans opposed to the peace process, other police commanders have said.
Officers are on high alert for more attacks.
Police have said the latest bomb was a deadly device, which was found close to a home near the town's police station.
Mr McCalmont added: "For some reason it has failed to deploy.
"It could have gone anywhere.
"It was stored and sitting overnight for eight or nine hours in this vulnerable position where a member of the public found it."