ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606170030
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND NOTE: LEDE
SOURCE: Associated Press
A bomb exploded in a van near a shopping center Saturday, injuring more than 200 people in a whirlwind of glass and debris that knocked shoppers off their feet and raised a dense black cloud. The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland blamed the IRA.
No one immediately claimed responsibility. But the attack, just six days after the opening of peace talks in Northern Ireland, shattered any hopes that the IRA's supporters would be allowed to take part in the discussions any time soon.
Police began clearing the area 40 minutes before the blast, following telephoned warnings to news media and a hospital in this industrial city 180 miles northwest of London. A newspaper in Dublin and an office in Belfast also received warning calls.
An army bomb squad was using a mechanical device to check an illegally parked Ford van when the bomb exploded.
``I was thrown onto the floor and knocked my head against the wall. After that, everything seemed in slow motion,'' said Sylvia Glen, 44, a store security guard. The blast perforated her eardrum.
Manchester's ambulance service said it counted 206 injured people. Ambulances and private cars ferried the shocked and bleeding victims to hospitals.
A dozen people were seriously injured, including a woman in the last weeks of pregnancy who was thrown into the air. She and the baby survived the blast, said Richard Emmott, spokesman for Manchester Royal Infirmary.
Other people walked in for treatment, or lined up at telephone booths to let their families know they were all right.
``Some were crying, and a few were angry at these people who had been trying to kill them,'' said Jonathan Borrill, registrar at the infirmary.
The clinic treated 73 people, including a 4-month-old boy whose hand was cut.
Police tried to clear the area before the blast, but the explosion outstripped their efforts - glass shattered up to half a mile away -
Deputy Chief Constable Malcolm Cairns told a news conference that a number of nearby buildings were ``quite severely damaged'' but gave no details.
Authorities closed the two main railway stations in Manchester for several hours, and sealed off the center of the city. Hundreds of soccer fans are in Manchester for the Euro 96 match Suntoday between Germany and Russia. Officials said the match would go ahead.
``This explosion looks like the work of the IRA,'' Prime Minister John Major said in London. Police said a television station had received a warning call from a man with an Irish accent.
Major suggested the bomb was timed to spoil Saturday's Trooping the Color ceremony in London, the official celebration of Queen Elizabeth's 70th birthday.
The queen, who was informed of the attack when she returned to Buckingham Palace after the ceremony, said she was ``shocked and deeply saddened.''
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, chairman of the Northern Ireland peace talks, condemned the blast in a statement jointly issued by his colleagues, former Canadian Chief of Staff Gen. John de Chastelaine and former Finnish Prime Minister Harri Holkeri.
``This reprehensible act comes at a crucial time, just days after multi-party talks began,'' it said. ``We believe that the way to peace is not through violence but rather through meaningful dialogue.''
Irish Prime Minister John Bruton said he believed the Irish Republican Army wanted to distract attention from its admission earlier Saturday that some of its members murdered an Irish police officer June7.
``The news management aspect of the Manchester bomb shows that the IRA are cynical and empty of any humanity,'' Bruton said.
President Clinton also denounced the bombing and expressed support for the people working for peace in Northern Ireland.
``Such viciousness deserves universal condemnation,'' he said. ``The men of violence have once again tried to dash their hopes.''
The IRA bombed the same area Dec. 3, 1992, injuring more than 60 people in two morning rush-hour blasts.
After signing a cease-fire, and adhering to it for 17 months, the IRA resumed its bombing campaign in England on Feb. 9 with a huge explosion in east London that killed two men.
Sinn Fein, the IRA's political ally, has been locked out of peace talks that began in Northern Ireland on Monday because Britain and Ireland insist that a new IRA cease-fire must come first.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said in Belfast: ``We remain very, very firmly focused on the need to restore the peace process, and we will not be deflected from that by anything.
``And if this bomb explosion, or if it is a bomb explosion, if it is linked to the conflict in Ireland, obviously I regret and I sympathize with those who have been injured.''
LENGTH: Medium: 98 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP 1. Glass and debris from a shopping center inby CNBManchester, England, litter the street Saturday after a bomb
exploded in a nearby van. No one immediately claimed responsibility.
Color 2. Map of Great Britain. Color.