Two men have been arrested in Northern Ireland over a bomb alert on the Irish border.

The two were held after a 600 lb bomb was found in an abandoned van in Clady in County Tyrone.

Police sealed off Clady Wednesday evening after the van was dumped on a bridge in the town with its hazard lights on.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland initially thought they were dealing with an abandoned vehicle.

However, they closed the roads into Clady after receiving a phone warning about the bomb. Local politician Gerard Foley was one of the first on the scene. “

We stood and looked at it for about 10 or 15 minutes and we said, ‘There’s something not right here’,” he said. “So we cordoned off the street and put cones across the road, and then we phoned the police.

“There is no support in this community for what is happening, [people] don’t want this in Clady at all.” West Tyrone MLA and MP Pat Doherty said the whole situation was a disgrace.

"Whoever parked the van there or planted the device, if there is a device, really needs to catch themselves on. It's a disgrace," he said.