BELFAST (Reuters) -Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was taken off stage by officials during a speech in Belfast on Friday after the event organiser said a suspect device was discovered in a hijacked van in the car park of the venue.
The van driver was ordered at gunpoint to drive to the venue in north Belfast, one of the event’s organisers told Reuters. Coveney was driven away from the venue in his government car after leaving the stage, a Reuters witness at the scene said.
The driver was in tears inside the venue after alerting security officials to the incident and apologising to attendees for being forced to drive to the site, the Reuters witness said.
“There is a security alert and the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland) are currently assessing the situation. Everyone has had to evacuate the centre,” Tim Attwood, secretary of the Hume Foundation, told Reuters.
The United Kingdom lowered its Northern Ireland-related terrorism threat level for the first time in more than a decade on Tuesday, with police saying operations against Irish nationalist militants were making attacks less likely.
The PSNI said they are currently in attendance of a security alert and that motorists are advised to avoid the area.
(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
