Armed police checkpoints are to be deployed around Belfast to prevent a Christmas bombing campaign by republican dissident terror groups, it has been announced.

The police service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed vehicle checkpoints will be mounted and plain clothes officers will be on the streets to thwart attacks on the city during the festive period.

PSNI Ch Supt Nigel Grimshaw, the district commander of Belfast city policing district, said stopping high profile bomb attacks is one of the police’s priorities in the run up to Christmas.

He said: “As of this moment we’ve stopped something in the order of 1,000 vehicles coming in and out of the city centre. We want to do this in a balanced way so people feel safe but as well as that we want to ensure that people with a more sinister intent don’t get to bring something into the city centre.”

Referring to several dissident republican bomb attacks last December, Grimshaw added: “I think Christmas is a very busy period and clearly the instances that happened last year around Christmas were significant and certainly grabbed the attention of the public. We take that on board, we have also seen the attacks that have happened just outside the city centre but in Belfast city over the last few weeks, so we constantly review our security profile.”

He added that as well as being used to watch out for car bombs and arsonists linked to hardline anti-ceasefire republican groups, the presence of plain clothes officers would also deter normal street crime in the city centre. The PSNI has been active over the last few weeks in deterring dissident republicans from staging bombings and shootings in Greater Belfast.

A 29 year old man appeared in court in Belfast earlier on Monday charged with possessing a rifle in the city last week. There were cheers in court in support of west Belfast man Vincent Kelly, who also faced charges of possessing 50 rounds of ammunition.

Kelly was among four people arrested in a police operation in Belfast last Thursday night. They recovered what was believed to have been an AK47 and ammunition in a holdall bag inside a white taxi close to Grosvenor Road police station in the west of the city. Three others all aged in their late 20s were arrested as part of a follow-up operation but have since been released without charge.

The case is expected to be heard again on 22 December.