POLICE were early today investigating an explosion at an oil terminal
at North Shields, Tyne and Wear.
The blast came less than 24 hours after an explosion and fire at a gas
holder in nearby Gateshead.
Police, forensic, and bomb squad officers were still searching for
clues to the cause of that blast, with no trace of evidence that would
point to a bomb.
Details were scarce about the North Shields incident. There was no
fire at the site and no reported casualties, Tyneside fire service said.
Firemen were called to the Esso terminal at 11.19pm.
The terminal was also the target of a bomb blast in April, on the day
before the IRA's massive bomb attack on the City of London.
On that occasion, a device holed a storage tank, but caused no
injuries. Police said they were confident it was the work of the IRA.
The explosion and fire at the gas depot in Gateshead had all the
hallmarks of a terrorist attack.
But with no claim of responsibility for the blast just before midnight
on Tuesday and no trace of a bomb, police are keeping an open mind
publicly about its cause.
But Detective Chief Superintendent Barry Stewart, head of Northumbria
CID, said: ''We are treating the incident as a crime but I would not
like to say what the nature of the crime is at this stage.''
Yesterday's incident happened only a mile from the Metrocentre
shopping complex where on May 9 last year several IRA incendiary devices
were planted in stores, some going off but causing only minimal damage.
Residents of 250 houses near the gas depot were evacuated to community
centres. Pensioners, some in their 80s, were shaken by a loud explosion
and saw 30ft flames burst from the storage tank.
About 100 firefighters tackled the blaze whose heat damaged windows of
nearby houses. However, the half-full, 1.7 million cubic foot capacity
storage tank was not badly damaged.
British Gas Northern ruled out any chance of the explosion being an
accident. A spokesman said: ''We don't believe it was caused by a
normal, operational failure.''
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