2001 BBC bombing

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4 March 2001 BBC bombing
Part of the Dissident Irish Republican campaign
Location White City, London, United Kingdom
Coordinates 51°30′41″N0°13′29″W / 51.5113°N 0.2248°W / 51.5113; -0.2248
Date4 March 2001
12:30 am – (GMT)
Target BBC Television Centre
Attack type
 Car bomb
Deaths0
Injured1
PerpetratorsNoel Maguire, Robert Hulme, Aiden Hulme, James McCormack and John Hannan

The 2001 BBC bombing was a terrorist attack on the BBC's main news centre within BBC Television Centre, on Wood Lane in the White City area of West London.

Contents

History

At 12:27 am (0027 UTC) on 4 March 2001, the Real IRA, a dissident Irish republican group, detonated a car bomb outside the BBC's main news centre within BBC Television Centre, on Wood Lane in the White City area of West London. [1] [2] [3]

Between ten and twenty pounds (approximately 4.5 to 9 kilograms) of high explosives had been placed in a red taxi, reports by BBC after the bombing reported that it was a black taxi but was later identified as a red taxi. The taxi was purchased on the morning of 3 March in Edmonton, north London, and abandoned yards from the main front door of BBC Television Centre at 11 pm. [4] Police officers were attempting to carry out a controlled explosion on the bomb with a bomb-disposal robot when it went off. Staff had already been evacuated after police received a coded warning that had been given to a London hospital and charity one hour before the explosion. There were no fatalities, though one London Underground worker suffered cuts to his eye caused by glass debris. [5]

BBC cameraman Jon Brotherton caught the moment of the explosion and the resulting damage—which included numerous smashed windows in the front entrance—was seen as day broke. [6]

Conviction

The bomb was part of a Real IRA bombing campaign which included the Ealing bombing on 2 August 2001 and an attempted bombing in Birmingham city centre on 3 November 2001. [7] Later in November, three men—Noel Maguire, Robert Hulme, and his brother Aiden Hulme—were arrested in connection with all three bomb attacks. They were convicted at the Old Bailey on 9 April 2003, [8] together with two other men—James McCormack, of County Louth, and John Hannan, of Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh, both of whom had already admitted the charge at an earlier hearing. [9] The Hulme brothers were both jailed for 20 years; Maguire, who the judge said played "a major part in the bombing conspiracy", was sentenced to 22 years; McCormack, who the judge said had played the most serious part of the five, also received 22 years; and Hannan, who was 17 at the time of the incidents, was given 16 years' detention. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ "Bomb blast outside BBC". BBC News Online . 4 March 2001.
  2. ↑ Hoge, Warren (5 March 2001). "BBC in London Bombed; Outlaw I.R.A. Is Blamed". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  3. ↑ "CNN.com - Real IRA blamed for BBC blast - March 4, 2001". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  4. ↑ "BBC bomb prompts terror warning". BBC News Online . 5 March 2001.
  5. ↑ "Bomb blast outside BBC". BBC News Online . 4 March 2001.
  6. ↑ "In pictures: BBC bomb blast". BBC News Online . 4 March 2001.
  7. ↑ "Real IRA team convicted of plotting BBC bomb blast". The Independent. London. 9 April 2023. Archived from the original on 9 August 2009.
  8. ↑ "Real IRA team convicted of plotting BBC bomb blast". The Independent. 9 April 2003. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  9. ↑ Deans, Jason (22 January 2003). "Two plead guilty to BBC bombing". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  10. ↑ "Real IRA bombers jailed". BBC News Online . 9 April 2003.
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