The PSNI has been accused of placing the lives of civilian road service workers in danger by asking them to cordon off and secure an area containing a 500lb bomb.
The Belfast Telegraph can reveal that roads leading to the Newry bomb were actually sealed off by Department of Regional Development workers and not police officers.
Serious concerns have been expressed that these civilian workers lack the expertise to deal with bomb scenes and hence the public's safety could be in grave danger. There are also fears that by doing the police's job for them, Roads services workers may be deemed "legitimate targets" by dissident republican paramilitaries.
A civilian Roads' lorry, which attended the scene to help the security operation, was later petrol-bombed near the nationalist Carnagat area.
In a statement, the PSNI said it was "assisted" by the road service "in the placing of cones due to the number of cordons and the volume of traffic in Newry".
DUP Policing Board member, Jimmy Spratt, said: "The PSNI are sleepwalking the community into a catastrophe. I've been told police commanders were cautious when dealing with the bomb because they feared officers could be heading into a dissident trap.
"It is despicable to show a duty of care to police, then risk the lives of civilian road service workers."
A local resident who contacted the Belfast Telegraph said: "Local people using the road knew there were no road-works there. They thought the cones had been wrongly placed or placed for a joke."
Willie Frazer, director or IRA victims' group FAIR, said: "We are lodging a complaint with the Police Ombudsman."
Frazer said that DRD workers had also sealed off a bomb scene near Belleeks in South Armagh last year. Police said the device, which exploded, had been designed to kill officers.
Frazer said: "I watched roads' service workers cordoning off the area – there wasn't a police officer in sight." A PSNI spokeswoman said on that occasion police had been "assisted" by the road service "due to the widespread and remote location of the area".
