A police investigation began last night into how a jailed terrorist killer got hold of a gun which he and a fellow inmate used to hold a prison officer hostage.
The two Republican inmates at Northern Ireland's top security Maghaberry Prison held the officer in a cell for four hours before they freed him unharmed and surrendered.
Prison Service sources said the men also had an improvised weapon.
All visits to the jail have been suspended for at least 24 hours while a search is mounted.
The two prisoners are now being held in a special segregation unit. Both are linked to the Irish National Liberation Army. One is serving life for murder, the other 25 years for attempted murder.
This latest blow to security came as Sir Patrick Mayhew announced he had asked the head of the Prison Service in Northern Ireland to urgently implement recommendations on a report into the IRA's attempt to tunnel out of the Maze Prison last month.
He endorsed the report which called for a tougher regime in the jail which houses leading terrorist prisoners.
Yesterday's hostage-taking is understood to be linked to INLA anger about the transfer from Maghaberry to the Maze last week of leading Loyalist Billy Wright, who is now housed in the same block as INLA inmates.
In a series of statements the INLA's political wing, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, said the transfer was a serious misjudgment by the authorities and would be resisted.
Meanwhile, Loyalists were accused of planting a 100lb car bomb outside a Sinn Fein office in the Falls Road, west Belfast.
The bomb was defused by the Army while Prime Minister John Major was making a brief pre-election visit to the city centre, little over a mile away.
The alarm was raised by a caller to a radio station who gave no recognised codeword and did not name any organisation as responsible.
However, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams blamed Loyalists.
The bomb was similar to one planted near a Sinn Fein office in north Belfast several weeks ago, and follows the recent targeting of the party's offices on both sides of the border.
Loyalist sources last night said that it was a response to the wave of IRA bombs and bomb alerts in England.
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