After a bomb scare, a peace-building event in Belfast has been cancelled.
According to UTV, a white van has been hijacked, with the driver being held at gunpoint and instructed to drive to the Houban Centre on Belfast’s Crumlin Road.
Midway through a speech, Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney was pulled aside by his security team.
He came to a halt and informed the audience that he had to depart and that he would be back in a few minutes.
He was speaking at the John and Pat Hume Foundation’s Building Common Ground event as the keynote speaker.
It’s one of a series of discussions about how to improve relationships in Northern Ireland and across the Island and the rest of the UK
Mike Nesbitt, a member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), was in attendance. He was “at a loss for words,” he told UTV.
A cordon has been erected and police are on the scene.
PSNI – Police are currently in attendance of a security alert at the Crumlin Road area of North Belfast this morning (Friday 25th March). Motorists are advised to avoid the area and seek alternative main routes for their journey.
