Gardai have confirmed they arrested a man and a woman and seized a machine gun and ammunition for it, in Drogheda, county Louth last night.

The two people are being detained under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act.

The arrests and seizure were made before a pipe bomb like device exploded in the Moneymore area.

The two incidents come 6 days after the shooting of a man (34) at a halting site in Drogheda in the early hours of last Thursday morning.

He remains in hospital and is understood to have suffered a number of serious injuries including one to his back.

No one was injured by the pipe bomb type device which was outside a retail premises in the Moneymore area around 12.30am this morning.

The Garda Press Office confirmed that the device “exploded under the frame of a retail premises causing damage to both the premises and to the front window of a house directly across from it.”

“The EOD team were requested to attend and a number of houses were evacuated until the scene was declared safe by the EOD team at 6.30am.”

The device has been classified as a “Crude device that functioned”.

“A full technical examination of the scene was carried out by the Louth Divisional Scenes of Crime Unit immediately after the device and the area were declared safe.”

Gardai in Louth confirmed that they are investigating if there is a link between the weapon and ammunition they seized, the pipe-bomb and last week’s shooting.

Online Editors