A van containing 250 kilogrammes of explosives was found along this road in Northern Ireland.<br/> <br />The device found near the border town of Newry was safely defused.<br/> <br />Police say it was powerful enough to kill anyone within a 50-metre radius if it had gone off.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: DISTRICT COMMANDER, CHIEF SUPERINTENDENT ALASDAIR ROBINSON, SAYING (English):<br/> <br />"The army technical officer has made safe a device contained in the back of a Citroen Berlingo van which had been abandoned. It was containing two blue barrels of about 125 kilogrammes each of home-made explosives with detonator booster tubes and all the priming equipment ready for the device to go."<br/> <br />Militant nationalists opposed to the 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of violence between supporters and opponents of British rule are being blamed for the incident.<br/> <br />Politicians on both sides of Northern Ireland's political divide are condemning the latest discovery.<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: SINN FEIN MEMBER OF NORTHERN IRELAND LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, MICKY BRADY, SAYING (English):<br/> <br />"Obviously there are residents living in the area so it's putting people's lives in danger. This is the main road out of Newry. People are going down it, and a lot of people go down for diesel and petrol to the south."<br/> <br />SOUNDBITE: ULSTER UNIONIST DANNY KENNEDY SAYING (English):<br/> <br />"I think the public will have to co-operate fully with the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) to identify the individuals behind this so that they can be apprehended and fully dealt with."<br/> <br />Another bomb was found under a parked car in Belfast. Eighty people were evacuated from their homes for five hours while it was also defused.<br/> <br />Paul Chapman, Reuters
