Bomb Explodes in London’s Whitehall

A bomb believed planted by the Irish Republican Army exploded Friday in the Whitehall area--the heart of the British government--about 300 yards from the prime minister’s residence and office.

No deaths or major injuries were reported, although some people in the area appeared to have been cut by flying glass.

The bomb, planted in a plastic briefcase left between two parked cars on Whitehall Place, shook buildings and blew out windows.

Prime Minister John Major had already left No. 10 Downing St. for a political meeting when the explosion occurred about 9:10 a.m. Major heard the blast but carried on with his appointment at the Conservative Party Central Office.

He later declared: “The terrorists really should have learned that neither in Belfast nor in London nor anywhere else will they be able to bomb people out of their normal activities. If they want to reinforce our determination that we will defeat them, this is the way to do it. It is utterly unproductive.”

The first warning of the bomb came at 8:38 a.m. when the London headquarters of CBS News received a call from a man with an Irish accent warning of a bomb in the Whitehall area. The CBS assignment editor called Scotland Yard, which dispatched its anti-terrorist squad to the area. It was quickly cordoned off to traffic and pedestrians.

At 8:55 a.m., police found the plastic briefcase on the street opposite the Ministry of Agriculture and began evacuating people from the area while awaiting the bomb squad. The bomb went off as a disposal officer approached it; the officer was not injured.

“It was a deep red flash,” said Jim Kennedy, the doorman at the nearby National Liberal Club.

“It was an almighty bang,” added Peter Wilkins, who was drinking coffee in a cafe.

The attack came just less than a year after a makeshift mortar attack by the IRA from the back of a truck. A shell landed in the No. 10 garden while Major was holding a Persian Gulf crisis meeting with his Cabinet. That attack was launched only a block away from the scene of Friday’s explosion.

The IRA, seeking to end British rule in Northern Ireland, stepped up its bombing campaign in Ulster and Britain before Christmas, using firebombs in British stores and larger explosives in Belfast.

Commander George Churchill-Coleman, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist squad, said the public needs to be vigilant, although he warned against panic. “We shouldn’t overreact to this,” he declared. “That is precisely what the terrorists want us to do.”