Suspected parcel bomb found in Lennon case

Police investigating parcel bombs sent to the Celtic manager, Neil Lennon, and two high-profile supporters of the Scottish football club, said yesterday that another suspect package had been intercepted in Northern Ireland. Officers are still looking for whoever was responsible for sending parcel bombs to Lennon and the two fans of the Glasgow-based side. The packages were designed to cause serious harm to the recipient, police said. The latest package, believed to be a parcel bomb, was found at the National Return Letter Centre in Belfast, where mail which has not been delivered and has no "return to sender" address is retained by Royal Mail.

It was the fifth package to be intercepted. Strathclyde Police believe the package originally entered the postal system at about the same time as the devices that are already under investigation. The Police Service of Northern Ireland recovered the package and alerted the Scotland force.

Strathclyde Police said the latest find would be made safe and handed over for further investigation. It is understood the package was not addressed to a particular individual.

Chief Superintendent Ruaraidh Nicolson said: "We would like to stress there is still no intelligence to suggest that these packages pose a threat to the wider public, and would urge people to remain calm."

Last week, the force said the two packages sent to Lennon, and others to lawyer Paul McBride, QC and a former MSP, Trish Godman, were "designed to cause real harm to the person who opened them". Two of the four parcels were intercepted at Royal Mail sorting offices in the West of Scotland last month, both addressed to the Celtic manager.

The first was found in Saltcoats, Ayrshire, on 4 March and the second was intercepted on 26 March in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire. Two days later, a parcel for Ms Godman, former deputy presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, was delivered to her constituency office.

Lennon, 39, was forced to retire from representing Northern Ireland in international football after claiming he had received death threats from a paramilitary group.