Lorry driver hijacked and threatened in Belfast

A lorry driver was hijacked in Belfast by armed men claiming to have placed a bomb on the truck, but he ignored their demands and drove to safety. An HGV driver has told the BBC that on 30 March in Belfast, he was hijacked by masked men who announced themselves as being part of the IRA and dropped a package onto his lorry.

He was ordered to drive to the M1 motorway bridge at Finaghy Road North, West Belfast, an area he says where there are often a lot of children. If he did not comply, he was told that he would be shot.

The two gang members went to walk away and the driver said that when he caught sight of them in his rear mirror he called the police and drove the lorry to waste ground at the top of Andersontown Road to minimise any casualties.

Speaking to the BBC, the truck driver, who asked not to be named, said: "Why would you hijack and put a device in a lemonade lorry? Well, the reason is there's a tonne and a half of glass in the back, and if that goes off it's going to shred everything."

Pat Glancey, Road Haulage Association (RHA) area manager for Northern Ireland and Scotland, says: "Drivers are already aware that they need to be alert in the area, but such attacks have not been brought to our attention recently."

It is unclear who is behind the hijacking. In March, the Real IRA claimed responsibility for killing two British soldiers in Northern Island. The IRA, however, formally ordered an end to its armed campaign in 2005 having been part of the peace process since the 1990s.