  By applying loop quantum gravity techniques to 3D gravity with a positive
cosmological constant $\Lambda$, we show how the local gauge symmetry of the
theory, encoded in the constraint algebra, acquires the quantum group structure
of $so_q(4)$, with $ q = \exp{(i\hbar \sqrt{\Lambda}/2\kappa)}$. By means of an
Inonu-Wigner contraction of the quantum group bi-algebra, keeping $\kappa$
finite, we obtain the kappa-Poincar\'e algebra of the flat quantum space-time
symmetries.
