Bomber attacks Catholic councillor's home
An SDLP councillor has hit out at loyalists who attacked his home with a pipe bomb in Derry.
Gerard Diver, a Catholic, his wife and four children escaped uninjured when the blast shattered the front door and the hallway.
Part of the ceiling was also brought down.
Police, who later recovered a number of four inch nails which had been wrapped around the device, say the family is very lucky that nobody was hurt.
Mr Diver said: "We turned a corner in terms of political progress in Northern Ireland this week but the people who did this belong to a bygone age. Violence should be redundant."
The attack, at Mr Diver's home at Sutton Gardens in the predominantly Protestant Waterside area of Derry, happened after midnight.
It is the latest in a widespread and developing campaign of loyalist pipe bomb attacks against SDLP representatives, and Catholic families' homes and property right across Northern Ireland.
Mr Diver, who was elected to Derry city council last June, was in the house with his wife and four children, who are aged between five and 12.
It is fortunate nobody was injured or killed, he said, adding: "There is nothing to be gained by acts such as this. If they (loyalists) want to be part of the future of this country then they must be part of the democratic process and not try to stifle it."
