The Sunday Times

16th June 1996

THE IRA BOMBS MANCHESTER

by David Leppard and Andrew Alderson

HOPES of an Irish peace settlement suffered a huge setback yesterday as a bomb, believed to be the work of the IRA, exploded in the centre of Manchester, injuring more than 200 people, some seriously. The device in a van went off at 11.20am in a side street near the city's busy Arndale shopping centre, as international attention focused on Britain for the Euro 96 football tournament and celebrations for the Queen's official birthday. Thousands of people caught up in the blast were shopping in the area on the eve of Father's Day and today's football match between Germany and Russia at Manchester United's Old Trafford ground.

The explosion, which caused up to £50m of damage, came just five days after Sinn Fein, the IRA's political wing, was excluded from historic all-party peace talks in Belfast because the IRA had refused to order a new ceasefire. In remarks certain to enrage British politicians and families of the victims, Gerry Adams, Sinn Fein president, spoke of peace despite the blast. "Whatever the cause of this morning's incident in Manchester, Sinn Fein's focus remains firmly fixed on the need to restore the peace process and we will not be deflected from that task," he said. John Major, who was attending Trooping the Colour in London when the bomb went off, called on Sinn Fein to condemn the attack and demand a new IRA ceasefire. "This was a dreadful act. I condemn utterly those responsible," the prime minister said. "This callous act of terrorism while the Queen was reviewing the Colour of the Irish Guards is an insult to both nations." Tony Blair, the Labour leader, said: "If the IRA think they can shift the resolve of any government with this action they are cruelly mistaken." Paddy Ashdown, leader of the Liberal Democrats, called it "a brutal act".

Security experts believe the attack was designed to secure a propaganda coup while the world's attention was drawn to Britain for Euro 96. They fear a renewed intensification of the IRA's mainland bombing campaign aimed at wrecking the peace process. Last night emergency services were still searching through the rubble in case further victims were killed or trapped. Nearly 75,000 had been evacuated from the city centre. The police had cleared the area around the Arndale centre after a coded telephone warning to a local television station 90 minutes before the blast. A helicopter flying over the city centre warned shoppers to keep out.

The explosion, which shattered windows within a half-mile radius, could be heard two miles away. Garry O'Neill, a Manchester fire brigade spokesman, said a large section of the Arndale centre had been destroyed. "It is a scene of devastation. A 60-yard stretch on one side of the Arndale centre has simply collapsed into the road. The gable end has been blown away," he said. Shoppers making their way back to their cars were hit by giant shards of flying glass and suffered horrific injuries. "I heard a huge blast and all the windows in the shop I was walking past fell out," said Judith Lynn, 43, of Cheadle, Greater Manchester. "People were rushing round screaming, bleeding from injuries caused by the flying glass. Others tried to help the injured." Paul Sanders, a photographer, said he was trying to get a picture of bomb disposal officers at work when the bomb went off. "Suddenly one of them ran off to a wall where some building workers were leaning over and shouted 'Get back, get back.' Within seconds there was an enormous explosion," he said. Another witness, a taxi-driver from Macclesfield in Cheshire, said: "It was chaos. There were people running everywhere and there was just loads of glass flying around. The glass from the window fell on to my back. My friend was thrown forward and had his back cut by showers of glass."

About 100 fire-fighters using 20 fire engines tackled a series of small blazes resulting from the bomb. As dozens of walking wounded were helped from the scene, there was panic over reports of a further device. More than 200 people, including a number of children, were injured by the blast and were taken to six hospitals. Eighty-one ambulances from Manchester, Merseyside and West Yorkshire raced to the scene. Manchester Royal Infirmary said it was treating 70 casualties, including a pregnant woman. "She has been examined by a specialist because she was literally thrown through the air with the force of the blast," said Richard Emmott, a hospital spokesman. The hospital said four of the victims were critically ill and another 10 had serious injuries.

The Association of British Insurers said the blast could have caused up to £50m of damage; the destruction to the Arndale centre and buildings near by was described as "colossal". Emmott said 50 beds had been cleared in his hospital: "Within five minutes, people were arriving in police wagons, taxis, private cars and walking in off the street. People are very clearly shocked by what has happened, but the majority seem surprisingly calm." Chief Superintendent Peter Harris of Greater Manchester police said: "We are pretty convinced it was the IRA." Harris said the bomb warning was telephoned to Granada television at 9.41am by a man with an Irish accent. Yesterday's blast was the largest since the ceasefire ended in February with the London Docklands bomb, which killed two people and caused millions of pounds of damage. It is the first terrorist attack outside the capital since the end of the ceasefire. The IRA is believed to have several caches of arms and explosives hidden in dumps around the country. Police say the terrorists still have supplies of Semtex high explosive but yesterday's blast is more likely to have been caused by a fertiliser-based bomb similar to the Docklands device.

The Manchester blast sparked angry Unionist demands for the government to break off all contact with Sinn Fein. Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist party, said the bombs showed Adams "does not want to or is not able to control the IRA". Ken Maginnis, Ulster Unionist party security spokesman, said the bombing showed that IRA/Sinn Fein was "totally lacking in any intellectual or ideological justification". Only last weekend there had been intense speculation that the IRA would call a new ceasefire. The nationalists have since won an important concession at the peace talks when some Unionists agreed to allow George Mitchell, the former United States senator, to chair the talks.

Last night Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch was called in to assist the inquiry into the bombing. Detectives hunting the bombers were trying to collect video footage from shop security cameras in the hope that it might yield clues. They will be tracing the history and movements of the vehicle used to carry the bomb to its target; the van is thought to have been given a parking ticket minutes before it exploded. Police are also checking details of similar vans which have come over from Northern Ireland in recent days. With massive police resources devoted to London for yesterday's Trooping the Colour and the England versus Scotland Euro 96 match, the IRA may have seen Manchester as a "soft target." The blast led to confusion among the emergency services.

At first Greater Manchester police said there had been a controlled explosion and no reports of casualties. However, within minutes the fire brigade confirmed that the explosion had not been controlled and that dozens of people had been injured.

The police later said they had carried out two controlled explosions on packages in the city.

Manchester was last the target of the IRA in December 1992 when two bombs exploded in the city centre, injuring 64 people.