Live bullets in costume for anti-war play

They were detained at Belfast airport when officials discovered 12 live rounds of ammunition sewn into the lining of a 1970s denim jacket worn by an actor whose character was a war reporter in the show, The Conquest of Happiness.

The jacket, which was bought online, was in a bag checked into the plane’s hold.

The four suspects spent most of Monday at a Belfast city centre police station but were released when it became clear they were unwittingly carrying the bullets.

The jacket had been bought via the internet as a costume for Londonderry actor Dermott Hickson whose character reports on war and genocide from Vietnam to Srebrenica and Rwanda.

The team were travelling from Belfast to Sarajevo for the first leg of their European tour.