The Five Demands

Second city alert after Alliance ‘hoax’ (UTV)

A security alert near an Alliance Party office in east Belfast has ended.

Police said a suspicious object, which was discovered outside the building on the Upper Newtownards Road on Tuesday morning, was an “elaborate hoax”.

The road was closed between its junction with Beersbridge Road and Grampain Avenue while army bomb squad officers carried out a controlled explosion.

All roads in the area have now been “fully reopened”.

Chris Lyttle, east Belfast Alliance MLA, said: “It will not deter my colleagues and I from delivering for the constituents and businesses in East Belfast that we are elected to serve.”

Meanwhile, a number of homes were evacuated in a second alert in the Donegal Park area of south Belfast.

Army bomb experts were tasked to the scene and later declared the object a hoax.

All roads in the area have been opened to traffic.