TERRORISTS last night laid a double bomb trap apparently designed to
kill emergency workers, police said today.
A bomb planted in the toilet of Reading station was timed to go off
only hours after a trackside bomb exploded beside the main line between
London and the West Country.
Though the attack failed in its murderous intent, it will mean
commuter chaos this morning on one of the busiest rail links in the
country.
Chief Superintendent Anthony Howlett-Bolton, of Reading Police, told a
news conference that the bomb found in the toilet by a BR security
worker was a ''substantial device'' and was ''primed and ready to go''
with a timer.
The weapon was made safe by an Army bomb squad. Otherwise it would
have exploded as emergency services thronged the station dealing with
the trackside bomb on the main line to Paddington which exploded at
10.43pm .
Another bomb planted in a toilet at Basingstoke station in Hampshire
was also discovered and made safe.
''The IRA have failed, and once again failed badly in their terrorist
campaign because, if the device that exploded had gone off first, and
the first one had not been discovered by the vigilance of the security
staff, one can imagine there would have been loss of life, because the
station would have been used by the emergency services,'' said Mr
Howlett-Bolton.
Misleading warnings about bombs at other stations last night brought
closures and disruption to a huge section of British Rail's Network
South-east.
There was a question mark early today over the size and effect of the
trackside bomb, which was heard by staff at a local radio station three
miles away.
A Thames Valley police spokesman said first reports said the explosion
had taken place on the line 600 metres north of the station. But it was
later suggested that the bomb might have gone off in a car park next to
the railway.
The spokesman said: ''We are trying to pin-point exactly where the
explosion was. So far there have been no reports of any damage to
property.''
She said there was nothing to confirm an earlier report that the lines
had been blown apart.
In the early hours, police continued searching the station and track
for further devices and a large part of the town centre remained sealed
off.
The station straddles the main rail route between London and the West
Country and South Wales.
The spokesman said Anti-Terrorist Branch officers were on the scene.
The coded warning was a type used by the IRA.
Asked about the terrorists' actions, Mr Howlett-Bolton said: ''I think
they are futile, absolutely futile, because they will not cause the
British public to cow to their aims.''
BR chief Roger McDonald told the news conference: ''We'll do our best
to look after the 40,000 people due to use these services.
''If necessary, we are planning shuttle services from South Wales and
the West Country to Swindon and bus connections to Slough for a further
shuttle into London.''
Forensic teams are examining the remains of the bomb recovered from
the Reading toilet after it had been made safe by a controlled
explosion. ''We were examining that when the second one went off,'' said
Mr Howlett-Bolton.
''The blast rattled the windows of the police station nearly two miles
away.''
Mr McDonald said: ''There's something of a Dunkirk spirit about an
incident like this, where many staff have volunteered for service to do
what they can to help.''
Engineers were on standby to begin repairs to any damage as soon as
the police declared the area safe after as visual checks are completed
in daylight.
The earlier bomb finds, coupled with telephoned warnings of other
devices planted at Waterloo and Guildford stations, sparked a security
alert which threw the Home Counties into chaos last night.
The bombs followed Saturday's atrocity in Belfast where an IRA bomb in
the Shankill Road left 10 dead, including one of the bombers.
A Network South-east spokesman said a call was received at 7pm saying
a bomb had been planted at Basingstoke station.
A telephoned warning of another device at Guildford in Surrey led to
that station being closed, although trains continued to run through.
Waterloo station was also entirely closed from 8.15pm and Scotland
Yard later said a controlled explosion was carried out in a street near
the station at around 9.10 pm. The item was not a device but the station
remained closed.
The alerts left thousands of people returning from weekend breaks
stranded as their often-crowded trains were halted miles from their
destination.
Many had to await hastily-improvised shuttle bus replacements as a
railway spokesman said: ''The south-west division of Network South-east
has effectively come to a stop.''
The explosion came on a day when fears had been heightened of a
threatened backlash by loyalists after Saturday's IRA bombing in
Belfast.
Last night, efforts to involve Sinn Fein in peace talks appeared
doomed after the bombing which killed 10 people, including one of the
IRA terrorists who was planting the device when it exploded.
Mr Gerry Adams, president of the IRA's political wing, last night
admitted the bombing was a ''disaster''. He said: ''It was wrong. It can
not be excused.''
Prime Minister John Major branded the atrocity ''cold-blooded murder''
and Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Patrick Mayhew declared that there
would be no talking to the IRA until it had renounced violence.
A meeting planned for this Wednesday between British and Irish
Government Ministers -- to discuss peace proposals agreed in secret
talks between SDLP leader John Hume and Mr Adams -- has been postponed
because of the bombing.
Two girls aged seven and 13 were among those killed in the explosion
at a fishmonger's shop in the crowded Shankill Road, a fiercely
Protestant area, on Saturday afternoon. The 58 injured included a
two-year-old boy.
Security forces in Belfast are now bracing themselves for a threatened
backlash by loyalist terrorists. Three men have already been injured in
shootings attributed to loyalists in the Belfast area since the
explosion.
The IRA terrorist killed by his own bomb was Thomas Begley, 23, from
Brompton Park, Ardoyne, Belfast, who had just helped to carry the device
into the shop when it exploded.
A second IRA man lost an eye and was last night under
heavy police guard in hospital where his condition was critical.
Police said a third man, the driver of the getaway car, had been
sitting parked around the corner but drove off on hearing the blast. It
is believed detectives know his identity, but it is not clear if he is
among those detained.
The IRA said the bombers' target had been members of the outlawed
Ulster Freedom Fighters who, it claimed, were meeting in an upstairs
room.
But loyalist terrorists last night claimed nobody was there and that
the UFF leader the IRA wanted to kill had not even been in Belfast at
the time.
Apart from the wounded bomber, 10 other people, including a
two-year-old boy, were still recovering in hospital last night.
Mr Adams said last night: ''What happened, no matter about the
intention, cannot be excused.
''I think that those who are in position of leadership in the IRA --
no matter about the pressures which might be on them from loyalist
killer gangs -- they have to be aware that how they respond to these
pressures could end up as it did yesterday.''
Mr Major, in Cyprus for the Commonwealth summit, said yesterday: ''The
message I want to hear from the IRA is quite simple, and I have not
heard it. The message is: 'We have given up violence for good'.''
He shrugged off the Hume/Adams plan, saying: ''I have read about it, I
have heard about it, but I have not seen it.''
Mr Major, who was visiting the Royal Irish Regiment at a British base
at Episcopi, described IRA apologies for the atrocity as cold comfort.
''Many of the people here are from Belfast. Half the soldiers here are
from Ulster. Expressions of regret cut no ice here. It was cold-blooded
murder and there is just no excuse for it''.
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