'Take the scum off our streets'

At Monday's council meeting, as the bomb squad investigated a suspect device placed on the railway line, councillors said it was time for the police to take away the small minority of people bringing chaos to the town.

Mayor, Alderman Stephen Moutray condemned what he called 'a cowardly attempt to murder police', he said: "We could have faced another Omagh.

"Every time we have this chaos on our streets we totally condemn the action and call for the community to report those responsible to the police.

"That may not be happening but I believe it is and if people are giving information to the police then the PSNI need to react."

Mr Moutray said the number of arrests following riots in Belfast was in contrast to those in the Lurgan.

He added: "How can there be over 40 arrests after riots in Belfast yet when similar actions occur in our area there appears to be nothing.

"Are our cameras not as good? I will be meeting with police to ask them how many arrests there have been for this behaviour in the past year in our area.

"It's time for the gloves to come off and for these thugs to be taken off our streets and our society to be left in peace."

Councillor Mairead O'Dowd said: "We were fortunate not to have been preparing for funerals.

"We keep on urging the community to pass on information to the police and that is happening and the police say that the intelligence is being subsumed into their operations.

"The community is becoming frustrated, it is time we saw the results of the information on the ground.

"The police need to take the same measures as they did following the Belfast riots to catch those responsible. They need to publicise the ID of those responsible.

"Those responsible need to come out and explain their actions and tell us why."

Alderman Samuel Gardiner condemned the weekend's activities, he added: "Thousands celebrated the Twelfth in the town and there was not one bit of trouble - not a stone thrown or nobody hurt and now we have this activity.

"This is not wanted, these people have been rejected by their own community and it is time for them to be taken off the streets."

Councillor Noel McGeown said it was 'pure luck' the three young children injured were not killed

And Councillor Mrs Meta Crozier said Lurgan had suffered enough in the past. "There are young people doing this, but there must be older people in the background helping," she said.

"We have all seen the pictures on the TV of those people rioting and it is time the police took action."

On Saturday afternoon police received a 'vague' bomb warning in the Brownlow Terrace area.

Shortly after a bomb, placed in a public bin in Kilmaine Street, exploded injuring three girls aged 12, 11 and two who were on their way to a shop.

Residents in the area were evacuated from their homes while police forensic officers moved in to examine the scene and later, as is becoming customary, rioting broke out nearby.

On Monday a security alert closed the railway line for most of the day and later that night police closed part of the Antrim Road after reports of a suspicious object in the area.

Police said Saturday's explosion was 'similar' to tactics used in the Omagh bombing which killed 29 people and a pregnant woman with two unborn babies 12 years ago this week.