Irish foreign minister whisked offstage amid bomb scare in Belfast

An Irish foreign minister was whisked offstage Friday while delivering a speech advocating peace in Belfast after a “suspect device” was discovered in a nearby parking lot.

A van was hijacked and the driver was forced at gunpoint to head to the venue, the event’s organizers told Reuters. The van, which was driven to the parking lot of a venue where Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney was delivering a peace-building talk, was believed to have been loaded with “explosives or something purporting to be explosives,” Member of Parliament Claire Hanna told the BBC.