WORLD : British Flower Bed Bomb Hurts 6

A bomb hidden in a flower bed outside an army office exploded today and injured six people, officials said. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility.

Scotland Yard said the bomb was buried outside the front entrance of the Directorate of Army Education in Eltham, southeast London.

Cmdr. George Churchill Coleman, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch, said the bomb could have had a timer set “a couple of hours or many days” before the explosion.

“It’s important to warn everyone, particularly military personnel and those involved in Irish affairs, about this fairly new development,” he said. “This device was buried and was not visible to the naked eye.”