Blast at office of N.Ireland party

The SDLP is led by joint Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- An explosion has rocked the Belfast offices of one of Northern Ireland's main political parties.

Police said the blast was outside the office of a member of the moderate nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) in Antrim Road.

Scouts who use the constituency office of SDLP Northern Ireland assembly member and city councillor Alban Maginness were in the back of the building when the blast went off at 8.40 p.m. (2040 GMT) on Thursday, but escaped injury.

Maginness linked the attack to comments he had made supporting the continued imprisonment of Johnny Adair, the convicted chief of the loyalist Ulster Defence Association paramilitary group.

Blaming loyalist paramilitaries for the attack, he added that it had been "just by the grace of God" that no one had been hurt.

The mainly Catholic SDLP is the largest nationalist party in Northern Ireland, and is led by Nobel Peace Prize winner John Hume.

Police said an army bomb expert was sent to the scene after the explosion.

A press officer for the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police service, told CNN.com Europe: "The damage was to the front of the offices -- the front door and part of the hallway have been blown in."

The four people inside the building when the explosion occured were allowed to leave after army technical observers inspected the scene, police said.

The police and army were given no warning of the blast.

Maginness, a former lawyer, who is married with a young family, added: "The fact that there was a steel door that deflected so that the blast went out rather than in saved them (the Scouts).

"The four people who were upstairs would have been injured and possibly killed."

Maginness added that it was "a callous, cowardly attack". The attack was condemned by North Belfast Member of Parliament Cecil Walker, of the mainly Protestant Ulster Unionist party.

He said: "I and my colleagues in North Belfast unreservedly condemn this attack which was deliberately designed to kill and seriously injure."

His comments were backed by Democratic Unionist assembly member for North Belfast Nigel Dodds, who described the act as "an attack on democracy."

Carol Mulligan from Scouting Ireland CSI, said: "We heard a bang and saw a lot of smoke."

Police said two men were seen leaving the device after placing it in the doorway. They closed the office door behind them and then went off towards nearby Duncairn Gardens in a blue car.

Maginness was elected to Northern Ireland Assembly in June 1998.

He is currently chairman of the Regional Development Committee, which is responsible for transport planning; public transport; roads; rail; ports and airports; city visioning; water; and strategic planning.

He was chairman of the SDLP between 1985 and 1991.

Groups in Northern Ireland are observing ceasefires as part of the area's peace agreement, but splinter groups have rejected the political process.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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