Children find unexploded bomb behind Belfast police station

Police said a group of children who picked up an unexploded bomb that had been thrown at a Belfast police station were very lucky to escape injury. The bomb was one of two tossed at the Woodbourne police station, the British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday. The other bomb blew up in the attack about 10:30 p.m. Monday, but no one was injured. A group of boys and girls ages 9 to 11 found the unexploded device at the rear of the station and carried it around to the side of the building, said Brian Kingston, a Democratic Unionist Party councilor. "This is a combination of childhood innocence and a terrorist attempt to maim and kill," he said. Chief Superintendent George Clarke said the children were lucky they weren't harmed, The Independent reported. He speculated the devices had been thrown by Republican dissidents and had been intended to kill or maim officers. "I cannot see the logic of throwing bombs at the back of a police station and then leaving an unexploded one for children to pick up," Clark said. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.