1 Killed, 8 Hurt in London Blast; IRA Suspected

A powerful bomb believed to be the work of the outlawed Irish Republican Army ripped apart a double-decker bus on a busy street in central London on Sunday night, killing one person and injuring at least eight in the British capital’s third terrorist incident in 10 days.

“A body was found in the wreckage of the bus,” a spokesman for Scotland Yard said early today. He could not say whether the body was of a man or woman or give any further details.

St. Thomas’ Hospital near the scene said it was treating six of the wounded, including the critically injured driver of the No. 171 bus, which was headed for King’s Cross, a major subway and rail terminal. At least two other victims were being treated at University College Hospital, police said.

The police and angry British officials blamed the IRA for the blast, although there was no immediate confirmation.

The terrorist group ended a 17-month cease-fire Feb. 9 with a bomb blast in the Docklands area of London that killed two people and injured several dozen. On Thursday, police disarmed a bomb later described as 11 pounds of Semtex plastic explosive found in a phone booth in the theater district.

It is the IRA’s practice, followed in the two recent London incidents, to warn police and news media in advance of a bomb, using coded messages. No warning came Sunday night.

“There was no prior threatening call,” a Scotland Yard spokeswoman said. Neither was there any immediate claim of responsibility in the aftermath.

The lack of warning triggered speculation that the bomb had exploded inadvertently in transport.

The blast at 10:38 p.m. split open the bus like a tin can and hurtled shards of metal and glass around cold, wet Wellington Street in the Strand, a popular area of restaurants and pubs on the edge of the theater district. Most London stages are dark Sunday.

“I saw a big white flash in the sky. When the bomb went off, a taxi drove into the bus,” said Anthony Yates, 26.

“There was devastation, a complete state of panic,” said another witness, Canadian law student Mark Johnson.

Not everybody panicked. Kevin Mitchell, the manager of Zola’s bar, rushed with first-aid kits to help the injured. Taxi driver Mel Davis watched in awe as passerby Raymond Levy, fearing another explosion from the bus’ fuel, coolly opened the hood and turned off the diesel engine of the bus.

Prime Minister John Major monitored reports of the explosion into the early hours today while politicians called for a counterattack, saying the cease-fire was history and that terrorist war had resumed in earnest.

In Dublin, the Irish government, which has been pressing for a renewed cease-fire followed by peace talks, denounced the new violence as an “appalling outrage.”

The IRA, which seeks an end to British rule in Northern Ireland, has said it ended the cease-fire to protest Britain’s conditions for all-party peace talks.

Earlier Sunday, Gerry Adams, the leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, offered what he called a hand of friendship to encourage the opening of peace talks. Adams maintains that the IRA decision to end its cease-fire came as a surprise to him.

Following Sunday’s attack, however, Adams’ already damaged credibility took another blow.

“Sinn Fein cannot have its cake while the IRA eats it,” snapped unionist leader Peter Robinson, a member of Parliament from Belfast.

“Whether the bomb was being transported or had been in place, it must be a lesson to the prime minister and to unionists to look carefully at Adams’ hand if it is extended,” Robinson said.