Bomb in London Explodes Outside Harrods

A bomb, thought to have been planted by the Irish Republican Army, exploded outside London’s famous Harrods department store Thursday morning, slightly injuring four people.

The blast apparently occurred in a waste bin outside the main entrance to the store in fashionable Knightsbridge. It shattered windows, sending glass flying across normally busy Brompton Road.

The store was not yet opened at 9:40 a.m. when the explosion was set off, but more than 2,500 employees were inside preparing for the flood of shoppers expected at the 10 a.m. opening for the twice-annual sale in progress.

The blast was a chilling reminder of an IRA car bomb attack near Harrods in December, 1983, when three shoppers and three police officers were killed and 93 people were injured.

Scotland Yard spokesmen said that two coded warning calls were made within minutes of each other. The police quickly arrived to cordon off the area around Harrods, Europe’s largest department store.

One of the four injured was Fleur Melville, an editorial assistant for the Los Angeles Times, whose London office is on Brompton Road, a block from Harrods. She had just emerged from the Knightsbridge subway station and was walking to the office.

“I noticed the police putting up restraining tape across the road and traffic being diverted. I thought at first it might have to do with a subway bomb scare. I crossed Brompton Road and saw police pushing tourists away from Harrods’ windows, trying to clear the street.

“I was just across from the main entrance when there was an enormous noise from the blast followed by a sharp pressure and flying glass all around. There was pain in my ear and I was knocked sideways. . . . There was acrid smoke in the air, and I thought my last moment had come.”