A senior source said: “This certainly was a high-grade explosive used in this bomb. It wasn’t garbage stuff. “It would appear the bomber got his timings wrong. “It could be a case where he didn’t put his watch forward on Sunday [at 1am] and the timer went off too soon. “However, it is more likely he didn’t realise just how powerful the explosives would be.
“If anyone had been in the car or walking near it at the time then they would have been killed.” The Volvo SUV was completely destroyed in the blast while a house beside the vehicle had its doors and windows blown off.
The army bomb squad was called to the scene by police and the Explosive Ordnance Defence unit was carrying out a post blast analysis yesterday.
The car owner runs a business in the area and has no criminal convictions. He declined to comment when contacted yesterday. Detectives are probing if the attack was perpetrated by an inner city gang.