A mortar-bomb-style device has been discovered during a security operation in west Belfast.
It was found on grassland close to the Poleglass estate in the west ofthe city on Tuesday evening.
Police said the improvised explosive device had been left in an area where children passed by to go to school and nursery school.
DI Stuart Griffin of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said: “This device had the capability to cause serious injury and was left in an open public area where anybody, including children, could have found it.”
The local Sinn Féin councillor, Stephen Magennis, said the disruption caused by the security alert was unacceptable. “Those responsible for this device need to explain to this community what it will achieve,” he said.
The find comes less than a week after the PSNI raided a home in Ballymurphy, also in the west of the city, where they discovered half a kilo of semtex, 200 rounds of ammunition and two handguns.
A 45-year-old man with an address in Sunderland appeared in Belfast magistrates court earlier on Tuesday to face charges in connection to the Ballymurphy raid.
