Residents were evacuated from their homes in north Belfast overnight after a pipe bomb was thrown at a house in Havana Court.
Police received a report of the incident at about 22:30 GMT on Sunday and the device was found under a car.
After attending the scene, ammunition technical officers made pipe bomb safe before removing it for further examination.
Insp Curry said: “If the pipe bomb had exploded underneath the car, so close to a petrol tank, the consequences could have been devastating.”