A man arrested on suspicion of the sectarian murders of 10 Protestant workmen in Northern Ireland has been released pending a report to prosecutors.

The 59-year-old was detained in Newry, Co Down, on Friday by detectives investigating the mass shooting outside the village of Kingsmill, County Armagh, 40 years ago.

He was questioned on suspicion of the 10 murders and the attempted murder of the sole survivor, Alan Black, who was shot 18 times.

The PSNI said the man was released pending a report to the North’s Public Prosecution Service (PPS).

The IRA was widely blamed for what has become known as the Kingsmill massacre.

The factory workers were ambushed as they travelled along the Whitecross to Bessbrook road in rural south Armagh on January 5 1976 in an attack seen as a reprisal for a series of loyalist killings in the same area in the days beforehand.

The men’s minibus was stopped by a man waving a red light and those on board were asked their religion by a camouflaged gunman with an English accent. The workers had initially mistaken the man for a soldier.

The only Catholic workman was ordered to run away.

The killers, who had been hidden in the hedges, ordered the remaining 11 Protestant men to line up outside the van and then opened fire.