4 March 1999 Edition
Murder attempt on Coalisland family
A nationalist family narrowly escaped death in their Coalisland home after the mother opened a box containing a loyalist bomb.
The bomb, which was in a large Roses tin, was left on the windowsill of the house on Sunday night 28 February and was first spotted as the woman returned home by taxi after 10pm that night.
The woman who wished to remain anonymous explained that as she talked to the babysitter she forgot about the tin and it was not until Monday morning that she remembered about it and, thinking that it was a lunch box used by one of the men who work in their business, took it into the house through the window.
She opened the tin with her three year old son and husband in the house and standing beside her two year old daughter. When they realised what it was they contacted the RUC. The British Army later carried out a controlled explosion on the device.
The RUC has indicated that the device was similar to a pipe bomb thrown into the kitchen of a Catholic house on 28 January in Dungannon. This attack was claimed by the group using the name of the Red Hand Defenders.
The bomb, which was in a large Roses tin, was left on the windowsill of the house on Sunday night 28 February and was first spotted as the woman returned home by taxi after 10pm that night.
The woman who wished to remain anonymous explained that as she talked to the babysitter she forgot about the tin and it was not until Monday morning that she remembered about it and, thinking that it was a lunch box used by one of the men who work in their business, took it into the house through the window.
She opened the tin with her three year old son and husband in the house and standing beside her two year old daughter. When they realised what it was they contacted the RUC. The British Army later carried out a controlled explosion on the device.
The RUC has indicated that the device was similar to a pipe bomb thrown into the kitchen of a Catholic house on 28 January in Dungannon. This attack was claimed by the group using the name of the Red Hand Defenders.
