Bomb blast injures three children in Northen Ireland

Three children have been injured in a bomb blast in County Armagh in Northern Ireland. Two children aged 12 and a three-year-old suffered minor cuts and shock when they were hit by flying debris after a bomb exploded in the town of Lurgan. The blast went off in a wheelie bin in Kilmaine Street as police investigated reports that a device had been left at the town's Model primary school. The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating the possibility that the bomb may have been dumped after a planned dissident republican attack was aborted. Officers are also investigating reports of a second suspicious device in the area. SDLP Upper Bann representative Dolores Kelly blamed the blast on dissident republicans and described it as a despicable act. She said: "A call came in to the Samaritans saying a device had been placed near the Model school, but there was no mention of what town. "So police all over the north were out checking around all Model schools when the bomb went off without further warning at Kilmaine Street, just where the police would have needed to put a cordon around the school." "This was a despicable attempt to draw police in and then set off a bomb precisely where they would have been trying to keep other people back out of danger, and that is why the children were injured by debris from the explosion." The explosion follows several failed attacks by dissident groups against members of the security forces.