LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago

THE PSNI HAS said that dissident republicans may be responsible for sending a viable explosive device to a Derry city hotel.

Officers received a report at around 3.20pm yesterday afternoon that a suspicious package had been delivered to a hotel in the Ebrington Square area of the city.

A number of people were subsequently evacuated from the premises, along with staff from neighbouring premises, during the public safety operation that followed.

Ammunition Technical Officers attended the scene, examined the object, and carried out a controlled explosion on the device, which was deemed to be viable.

The item has now been taken away for forensic examination and an investigation has commenced.

The PSNI’s area commander of Derry City, chief superintendent Gillian Kearney, today confirmed that a viable postal device was sent to a hotel in Ebrington.

She said the investigation is at an early stage and that the PSNI is keeping an “open mind as to who is responsible”.

Kearney added: “We are working through a number of lines of enquiry, one of which, at this time, is that dissident republicans may be responsible.”

She thanked the local community for their ”patience and cooperation” during the security operation, which last from yesterday afternoon until close to midnight.

She said officers “worked to keep disruption to an absolute minimum while working to keep everyone safe”.

Kearney described the incident as “shameful and utterly abhorrent” and added that “those responsible clearly do not care who or what they harm”.

She appealed to anyone who has information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to make contact with police.

Information can also be submitted anonymously via the independent charity Crimestoppers.

Derry city is famed for its Halloween celebrations and local SDLP MP Colum Eastwood said that to “target a hotel with a funfair nearby in the middle of Derry’s Halloween celebrations is absolutely despicable”.

He added:  Tourists have flocked to our city, families are enjoying the half-term break and people are out celebrating Halloween.

“This put hotel staff, guests and families, including children, at risk. We could have been waking up to a tragedy today.

“I would challenge the people behind this to explain why they are disrupting the life of this city in this way.”

Eastwood said there can be “no twisted justification or logic for carrying out an act like this” and that the “people of Derry are rightly repulsed”.

He added that the city will continue with its preparations for its Halloween celebrations and that “we won’t allow this act to deter from it”.

“This weekend will show everything positive about our city in stark contrast to the people who carried out this thoughtless act,” said Eastwood.

Meanwhile, justice minister and Alliance leader Naomi Long said that those responsible “have again shown reckless disregard for the community and businesses affected”.

She thanked the PSNI officers who responded to the incident and remarked that “their courage is in stark contrast to those intent on destruction”.