BELFAST, May 30 (Reuters) - A Northern Ireland hotel was damaged in a bombing late on Thursday that politicians said was an attempt to drag the province back to its bloody past. No one was injured.
A device packed into a holdall bag started a fire after it was thrown into the reception of the luxury Everglades Hotel in Londonderry. Staff managed to evacuate the hotel before the device exploded "undoubtedly preventing a tragedy", police said.
The bomb exploded while bomb disposal experts were trying to defuse it. It was the first attack in Northern Ireland since the bombing of a shopping mall in November and there was no immediate claim of responsibility or explanation of why the hotel was targeted. (Reporting by Ian Graham; Editing by Padraic Halpin and Louise Ireland)
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