A bomb expert checks one abandoned car in Belfast

Army bomb experts dealt with a suspicious object left outside the Prison Officers' Training College at Ballywalter Road in Millisle.

Technical officers made the device safe.

Loyalist paramilitaries were behind a series of security alerts which caused major traffic disruption in several parts of Belfast on Friday, said police.

Army bomb experts are still examining a number of suspicious objects in the Belfast area and a car at Comber in County Down.

Army bomb experts are also dealing with a suspicious car on the Dee Street Bridge in east Belfast. The Sydenham by-pass is closed.

The Cregagh Road was closed at the Knockbreda Road junction after a suspicious object was discovered there. It was declared a hoax.

And a suspect device is being examined on Raphael Street in the city centre, and Cromac street has been sealed off.

It is understood that loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Defence Association, is behind the wave of alerts.

It is being linked to recent trouble by loyalist inmates at Northern Ireland's high security Maghaberry prison.

Finlay Spratt of the Prison Officers' Association said: "If they think by putting bombs outside the offices of the POA they are going to intimidate the POA, they haven't a mission - they are just wasting their time.

"But it just shows the type of the people."

The Army also examined a suspicious object at the junction of Alliance Avenue and Jamaica Street in north Belfast. It was declared an elaborate hoax.

Chief Superintendent Wesley Wilson attributed the alerts to loyalist paramilitaries.

"It is felt by us that this was done by loyalist paramilitaries and it was part of the ongoing dispute that exists presently in the prisons," he said.

"This was a way of bringing that disruption onto the streets in aid of that cause."

Loyalist sources have told the BBC that the bomb alerts are linked to the unrest inside Maghaberry jail.

The UDA leadership has met to discuss the prison situation.

Alerts at the Falls Road, Springfield Road and Kennedy Way in west Belfast and at Stockman's Lane were declared hoaxes.

These alerts have not only disrupted public life and hindered people going about their normal routine but also have hit vital services for everyone in Belfast Martin Morgan Lord Mayor of Belfast

A security alert close to the junction of Broadway and the Falls Road has also ended.

The M1 motorway, which had been closed in both directions between Lisburn and Broadway, was re-opened after several hours.

About 30 families were moved from their homes in Newtownabbey following an alert involving another suspicious vehicle.

Army bomb experts carried out three controlled explosions on the vehicle in Mill Road.

That alert was also declared a hoax.

'Gas cylinder'

A controlled explosion has also been carried out on a car left outside Our Lady of Mercy school on the Ligoniel Road in the north of the city.

In a separate incident, a car with a gas cylinder inside was found outside a community centre in the same area.

In a further security alert at Macedon Court off Abbeyville Street in Whiteabbey, a car with a gas cylinder on board was examined by Army bomb experts. It was later declared a hoax.

The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Martin Morgan, has condemned the wave of bomb scares.

The alerts caused major traffic disruption across Belfast

"These alerts have not only disrupted public life and hindered people going about their normal routine but also have hit vital services for everyone in Belfast," he said.

North Belfast Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly said there was a belief that the series of bomb alerts was the UDA "flexing their muscles after disturbances in Maghaberry prison on Wednesday night".

SDLP assembly member Alban Maginness also blamed loyalists for the attacks.

'It would appear that the UDA is responsible for the alerts that were designed to coincide with the appalling rioting by loyalists inside Maghaberry jail," he said.

"The UDA is obviously attempting to heighten tensions outside the prison as well as inside."

Meanwhile, the examinations body in Northern Ireland said it was very concerned that Friday's A-level exams may be disrupted by the bomb alerts across Belfast.

The CCEA said it was determined that the hundreds of pupils involved were not disadvantaged by travel chaos.

It said it had contingency plans and each pupil's case would be judged individually.