1992 Staples Corner bombing

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1992 Staples Corner bombing
Part of the Troubles
North Circular overpass, Staples Corner - geograph.org.uk - 1202537.jpg
The North Circular Road flyover from Tilling Road, looking towards Staples Corner
Location Staples Corner, London, United Kingdom
Date11 April 1992
1:10am (UTC)
Attack type
Van bomb
Deaths0
Injured0
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.

Contents

Description

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]

Aftermath

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]

See also

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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.

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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.

References

  1. Kirby, Terry (14 July 1992). "IRA City bombers identified by police" . The Independent. Archived from the original on 1 May 2022. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  2. Mickolus, Edward F.; Simmons, Susan L. (1997). Terrorism, 1992-1995: A Chronology of Events and a Selectively Annotated. Greenwood. ISBN   978-0313304682.
  3. Oppenheimer, A. R. (2008). IRA, The Bombs and the Bullets: A History of Deadly Ingenuity. Irish Academic Press. ISBN   978-0716528951.
  4. Bangash, T. (2010). Explosion-Resistant Buildings: Design, Analysis, and Case Studies. Springer. ISBN   978-3642058301.
  5. "City of London bomb – news report · British Universities Film & Video Council". Bufvc.ac.uk. 11 April 1992. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  6. Ahmed, Fatema (27 April 2015). "In Brent Cross". London Review of Books. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  7. "IRA claims it planted bomb that killed three – UPI Archives". Upi.com. Retrieved 18 May 2018.
  8. "Two bomb blasts in North London · British Universities Film & Video Council". Bufvc.ac.uk. 9 October 1993. Retrieved 17 May 2018.
  9. "IRA men guilty of conspiring to plant bombs in London". Herald Scotland. 20 October 1994. Retrieved 28 April 2018.
  10. Kinik, Anthony (1 August 2008). "Dynamic of the Metropolis: The City Film and the Spaces of Modernity" (PDF). McGill University, Montreal. Retrieved 18 May 2018.

51°34′18″N0°13′43″W / 51.5718°N 0.2287°W / 51.5718; -0.2287