Belfast - A Northern Ireland hotel was damaged in a bombing late on Thursday that politicians said was an attempt to drag the province back to its bloody past. No one was injured.
A device packed into a holdall bag started a fire after it was thrown into the reception of the luxury Everglades Hotel in Londonderry.
Staff managed to evacuate the hotel before the device exploded “undoubtedly preventing a tragedy”, police said.
The bomb exploded while bomb disposal experts were trying to defuse it.
It was the first attack in Northern Ireland since the bombing of a shopping mall in November and there was no immediate claim of responsibility or explanation of why the hotel was targeted. - Reuters