Residents evacuated amid blast debris

Ms Jordan was being helped away with her three-month-old baby when the device exploded.

“The paint went flying everywhere, we were trying to scramble through it to get out,” she said.

“There were broken vases and everything. I don’t know when I will get into the house again or what damage has been done.”

She recalled the moment police raised the alarm.

“I thought I was dreaming,” she said.

The family had only minutes’ notice before the device exploded.

Retired baker Jackie Budd lives yards away and awoke in confusion after the blast.

“I was just dazed, I did not know what was happening. There was just this loud bang and I thought something had blown in the house,” he said.

This is the first attack of note in Holywood, a mainly middle-class area with long ties to the military, since the 1980s. Today’s incident coincides with the transfer of policing powers from London to Belfast.

Mr Budd lives seven or eight houses down from the scene of the blast.

“There was debris on the road, what looked like big pieces of metal. There was no panic or yelling from the police, they just did their job,” he said.

The site of the bomb is a leafy area with dramatic views of Belfast Lough on the outskirts of the city.

Norman Farleigh, in his 70s, was near the device when it went off. He was knocked off his feet and was taken to hospital as a precaution but was not badly injured.

People in nightgowns and overcoats, suddenly made refugees, made the 656-yard (600m) walk to a nearby community centre on a chilly night, negotiating fragments from the car bomb and trying to contact relatives by phone.

All the residents were taken to Redburn Community Centre where they had breakfast provided by Palace Barracks.

This morning, some people stood around aimlessly in dressing gowns, with one woman drawing wearily on a cigarette.

“We have been here all night. We have been well treated but it is just the inconvenience of it and it could be a long time until we get back home,” she said.

They were sitting in a bare hall which could have been used for sports, where adverts against domestic violence and advocating community services were pasted to the wall.

Holywood has two British Army barracks, at Palace and Kinnegar, and has strong ties to the military. The last bomb attack on the town was in the 1980s. A mainly unionist area, it has a smattering of housing estates and elegant townhouses as well as well-manicured parks.

Police Inspector Bobby Singleton arrived at the community centre this morning with a plastic bag full of mobile phone chargers and reassuring news.

“There is no damage to houses or vehicles at this stage. We are going to carry on our examination of the scene. Some of the debris is close to people’s homes and we need to keep the area sterile,” he said.

“We will be able to push further down the road and get as many people as possible back into homes,” he said.

Most of the bleary-eyed residents were fulsome in their praise of the police, although some questioned the length of time it took to evacuate them.

A young boy, aged four or five, was unconcerned by the gravity of the situation, and laughed as an oversized policeman’s hat was placed on his head.

Another woman had her dog on a lead in the hall. The frail-looking pensioner recalled the moments when police knocked on the door.

“I saw someone with something which said ’Police’ on their chest but I didn’t know whether to answer the door or not,” she said.

“Somebody down the road was attacked by someone pretending to be from the Water Board, so you never know.

“I said ’What if you are not police?’ and they said to come on out.”

She made her way through part of the remains of the bomb strewn across the road to safety.

Alliance Assembly member Stephen Farry was helping to nominate a Northern Ireland Justice Minister just a mile or two away today at Stormont as part of the transfer of policing powers.

“It is just a miracle nobody was killed,” he said.