A car bomb has exploded outside a courthouse in Northern Ireland following a call to police.
The explosive detonated on Bishop Street, Derry/Londonderry around 8.15pm today.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) issued a warning to members of the public on social media, asking them to stay away and added "suspected car bomb".
Nobody is thought to have been injured in the incident, which has been condemned by politicians.
The DUP politician Gary Midleton said that the incident was a "disgraceful act of terrorism" and added: "PSNI have confirmed there were no injuries in the serious incident at Bishop Street.
The party's leader, Arlene Foster, described the incident as a "pointless act of terror" that "must be condemned in the strongest terms. only hurts people of the city, perpetrated by people with no regard for life."
Sinn Féin MP Elisha McCallion also condemned the blast, and said: "This incident has shocked the local community.
“In particular, there are many elderly residents who live in the area who have been alarmed by this incident.
“Thankfully no one appears to have been injured in this incident.
“Derry is a city moving forward and no one wants this type of incident. It is not representative of the city.
“I would encourage anyone with information about this incident to bring it to the police.”
SDLP Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA)Mark H Durkan tweeted: "Whoever is responsible for this explosion outside Bishop Street Courthouse in Derry clearly hasn't got the message that the people of Derry DO NOT want this on our streets.
"We are trying to move Derry forward and will not let anyone drag us back to the dark days of the past."
Bollards are understood to have been installed on the street where the car detonated several years ago to deter vehicles from parking at the courthouse.
A number of homes and bars were evacuated before the explosion, which was reported to police shortly beforehand.
The car involved is understood to have been stolen earlier in the day.
Guests at the five-star Bishopsgate hotel were also forced to leave the building, with a second car also now causing suspicion.
Witnesses described hearing loud bangs and images from the scene show a wrecked car littering the road.
Fire fighters were unable to immediately access the scene due to safety concerns but said their main priority was to extinguish the blaze.
The PSNI have warned the public to avoid the area, and appealed for anyone with information to get in touch.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here