LONDONDERRY, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - Northern Ireland police told locals on Monday that they had closed a road in a residential area of Londonderry due to the presence of a suspect device, according to a Reuters witness at the scene.

Police are at the scene of a security alert in Londonderry following a report that a van was hijacked by three masked men who threw an object in the back before abandoning it, a police statement said earlier on Monday.

The reported hijacking follows the explosion of a car bomb outside the city’s courthouse on Saturday in a vehicle that was also hijacked by masked men. No one was injured by the blast.