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1992 Staples Corner bombing | |
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Part of the Troubles | |
![]() The North Circular Road flyover from Tilling Road, looking towards Staples Corner | |
Location | Staples Corner, London, United Kingdom |
Date | 11 April 1992 1:10am (UTC) |
Attack type | Van bomb |
Deaths | 0 |
Injured | 0 |
Perpetrator | Provisional Irish Republican Army |
The 1992 Staples Corner bombing occurred on 11 April 1992 when the Provisional IRA detonated a large van bomb near the Staples Corner junction in North West London, England.
The attack happened at 1:10 am, a few hours after the major bombing of the Baltic Exchange seven miles away which killed three people. The bomb was home-made like the Baltic Exchange one, and was placed in a white Bedford van. [1] The IRA gave telephone warnings 50 minutes prior from a phone operator in Portadown, Northern Ireland. Police located the van and evacuated the area. [2]
Although no injuries were caused, the blast was powerful and caused significant damage to roads, leaving a crater on the A5 Edgware Road flyover beneath the North Circular Road. [3] It was strong enough to be felt several miles away. The bomb damaged a three-storey B&Q DIY superstore and a steel-framed warehouse, and severely damaged warehouse property constructed of light cladding. It was estimated the explosive force was around 100 kg. [4] An eyewitness said the B&Q store was "completely destroyed" and the roof collapsed. [5]
The B&Q superstore had to be demolished and the junction was closed for several months, causing severe disruption. [6] It is one of London's busiest intersections as it forms the lead of the M1 motorway. [7]
On the morning of 8 October 1993, the IRA targeted Staples Corner once again with a small explosion. Around the same time another bomb detonated 2 miles away on West End Lane in West Hampstead. [8] No injuries were caused. In 1994 two IRA members, Gerard Mackin and Derek Doherty, were found guilty of planting 12 bombs throughout London over seven days in October 1993. [9]
Staples Corner is featured in Patrick Keiller's 1994 film London. The scene showcases the wreckage of the bombing days after the explosion in 1992. [10]
Staples Corner is a major road junction in London, United Kingdom. It is about 6.3 miles (10.1 km) north-west from Charing Cross and directly to the west of the Brent Cross crossover. It is within the Brent Cross Cricklewood new town.
The 1996 Manchester bombing was an attack carried out by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) on 15 June 1996. The IRA detonated a 1,500-kilogram (3,300 lb) lorry bomb on Corporation Street in the centre of Manchester, England. It was the biggest bomb detonated in Great Britain since the Second World War. It targeted the city's infrastructure and economy and caused significant damage, estimated by insurers at £700 million, a sum surpassed only by the 1993 Bishopsgate bombing, also by the IRA.
The London Docklands bombing occurred on 9 February 1996, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb in South Quay. The blast killed two people and devastated a wide area, causing an estimated £150 million worth of damage. The IRA had sent warnings 90 minutes beforehand, but the area was not fully evacuated. As well as the two people who were killed, more than 100 were injured, some permanently.
The Bishopsgate bombing occurred on 24 April 1993, when the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a powerful truck bomb on Bishopsgate, a major thoroughfare in London's financial district, the City of London. Telephoned warnings were sent about an hour beforehand, but a news photographer was killed in the blast and 44 people were injured, with fatalities minimised due to its occurring on a Saturday. The blast destroyed the nearby St Ethelburga's church and wrecked Liverpool Street station and the NatWest Tower.
This is a chronology of activities by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), from 1992 to 1999.
On Friday 28 February 1992, the Provisional IRA (IRA) exploded a bomb inside London Bridge station during the morning rush hour, causing extensive damage and wounding 29 people. It was one of many bombings carried out by one of the IRA's London active service units. It occurred just over a year after a bomb at Victoria station.
This is a timeline of the events and actions during the Troubles that were carried out in Great Britain, the vast majority of which were carried out by Irish Republican paramilitaries mainly the Provisional IRA were by far the most active but both the Official IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army, also carried out a number of attacks, which included bombings and shootings. Ulster Loyalist paramilitary groups also carried out a small number of violent actions.
The Baltic Exchange bombing was an attack by the Provisional IRA on the City of London, Britain's financial centre, on 10 April 1992, the day after the General Election which re-elected John Major from the Conservative Party as Prime Minister. The one-ton bomb – concealed in a van and consisting of a fertiliser device wrapped with a detonation cord made from 100 lb (45 kg) of semtex – was the biggest bomb detonated on mainland Britain since World War II. The bombing killed three people, injured 91 others, and severely damaged the Baltic Exchange and its surroundings.
On 12 October 1992, the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) detonated a bomb that had been planted in the gents' toilets in the Sussex Arms pub in Upper St Martins Lane near Long Acre, London, killing a man and injuring seven other people.
The 1993 Harrods bombing occurred on 28 January 1993 when a bomb exploded near the Harrods department store in London, England.
The London Stock Exchange bombing occurred on the morning of 20 July 1990 with the explosion of a 5 to 10 lb bomb of high explosives inside the London Stock Exchange building in the City of London, England, planted by the Provisional IRA. The building and surroundings were evacuated after the IRA gave a telephone warning 40 minutes prior to the explosion, and thus nobody was wounded. But the bomb's strength blew a 10-foot hole inside the Stock Exchange Tower, and caused massive damage to the visitors' gallery on the first floor. The bomb was placed in the men's toilets behind the gallery. The gallery and public viewing area was forced to close in 1992.
On 25 June 1990, the Provisional IRA detonated a bomb at the Carlton Club, a club in London popular among MPs and supporters of the ruling Conservative Party. The bombing injured 20 people, one of whom, Lord Kaberry of Adel, died a year later. The ground floor collapsed to the basement and windows were shattered. The blast was felt up to half a mile away.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) targeted the Northern Ireland Forensic Science Laboratory (NIFSL) facilities on Newtownbreda Road in the southern outskirts of Belfast with a large 3,000 lb bomb on 23 September 1992. The huge impact of the bomb destroyed the lab and damaged over 1,000 homes within a 1.5 mile radius, including adjacent Belvoir Park, a Protestant housing estate. It was one of the biggest bombs ever detonated during Northern Ireland's Troubles, causing massive damage and being felt over 10 miles away. Hundreds of residents had to be treated for shock. Several military vehicles were damaged. The lab was a key target because it analysed evidence in cases involving IRA attacks. The IRA had given a warning, and British Army bomb disposal experts were investigating an abandoned van when the explosion occurred. One estimate put the repair damage cost at £20 million at the time.
The Biddy Mulligan's pub bombing occurred on the night of Saturday 20 December 1975 with the explosion of a 3 to 5 lb bomb at Biddy Mulligan's, an Irish pub on the corner of Kilburn High Road and Willesden Lane in northwest London. The device, left in a holdall, caused five injuries and damaged the premises.
The Provisional IRA (IRA) planted a bomb underneath a minibus at an army recruiting centre in Wembley, northwest London on 16 May 1990, killing a soldier and injuring four others. The dead victim was the van's driver, 34-year-old Sergeant Charles Chapman from the Queen's Regiment, a father of two. The injured included his colleague, who got shrapnel wounds to his legs and right shoulder, and a burned face. The bomb was believed to have been 2 lb (910 g) of Semtex and shattered nearby windows when it exploded around 5:15 pm. The van was an unmarked white Leyland Sherpa parked in an alleyway behind the office, which was checked by the two soldiers beforehand but the bomb was cleverly hidden, and detonated as Chapman turned on the ignition. The bomb could have caused more casualties had it exploded later when the van entered the busy street.
The 1974 Bristol bombing was a twin bomb attack carried out by the Provisional IRA in a shopping street in Bristol city centre on 18 December 1974. A bomb was placed in a holdall outside Dixons Photographic shop on Park Street which exploded just before 8 pm. Nine minutes later another more powerful bomb detonated in a dustbin 30 yards away. The blasts injured 20 people and was part of the IRA's bombing campaign in England. The IRA gave a telephone warning for the first bomb but not the second one.
On 14 November 1992, 3.2 tonnes of explosives was discovered during a routine check on a lorry travelling on Stoke Newington Road, part of the A10, one of the main routes between London and the north. The Volvo lorry was stopped by police around 1 am; the occupants fled. Constable Raymond Hall - a former Royal Engineer soldier and Falklands War veteran - chased the suspects to a residential street, Belgrade Road no.7 where he was shot twice by one of them. Shortly afterwards police arrested one man, Irish lorry driver Patrick Kelly, a member of the Provisional IRA, who was alleged to have been driving the lorry.