On Friday 28 February 1992, the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

(IRA) exploded a bomb inside

London Bridge station London Bridge is a central London railway terminus and connected London Underground station in Southwark, south-east London. It occupies a large area on three levels immediately south-east of London Bridge, from which it takes its name. The m ...

during the morning rush hour, causing extensive damage and wounding 29 people. It was one of many bombings carried out by one of the IRA's London

active service unit An active service unit (ASU; ) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of four to ten members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002, the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units. T ...

s. It occurred just over a year after a bomb at Victoria station.

Bombing

Around 8:20 am, someone rang

Ulster Television UTV (formerly Ulster Television, branded on air as ITV1) is the ITV region covering Northern Ireland, ITV subsidiary and the former on-air name of the free-to-air public broadcast television channel serving the area. It is run by ITV plc an ...

's London office warning that a bomb was going to explode in a London station, without saying which one. About ten minutes later, the bomb detonated, which made debris fly almost away from the blast area. Twenty nine people were hurt in the explosion, most of them from flying glass and other bits of debris; four were seriously hurt but nobody was killed. The victims were treated at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

Aftermath

The head of

Scotland Yard Scotland Yard (officially New Scotland Yard) is the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police, the territorial police force responsible for policing Greater London's 32 boroughs, but not the City of London, the square mile that forms London's ...

's anti terrorist squad, George Churchill-Coleman, said the bomb of high explosives was "clearly designed to kill." Investigations suggested that the bomb was placed in the men's restrooms. Churchill-Coleman added that the IRA's warning was "deliberately vague" and was given too late to act upon. Prime Minister

John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997, and as Member of Parliament ...

said the bombing would not change British policy in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. "It was pointless. It was cowardly. It was directed against innocent people and it will make absolutely no difference to our policy -- no difference at all." The next day, another bomb went off in London, by the

Crown Prosecution Service The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is the principal public agency for conducting criminal prosecutions in England and Wales. It is headed by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The main responsibilities of the CPS are to provide legal adv ...

office, injuring two more people and bringing the total injured to 31 in the space of just over 24 hours. This was one of dozens of bombs that detonated in London that year, the biggest of which was the

Baltic Exchange bombing The Baltic Exchange bombing was an attack by the Provisional IRA on the City of London, Britain's financial centre, on 10 April 1992, the day after the General Election which re-elected John Major from the Conservative Party as Prime Minister. ...

, killing three people and causing almost £1 billion worth of damage. The IRA maintained this pressure, bombing mainland Britain and especially the city of London as much as possible until the ceasefire of 1994.

References

{{coord missing, London Explosions in 1992 1992 in London Terrorist incidents in London in the 1990s Provisional IRA bombings in London Car and truck bombings in London Attacks on buildings and structures in 1992 Attacks on buildings and structures in London 1992 crimes in the United Kingdom February 1992 events in the United Kingdom History of the London Borough of Southwark 20th century in the London Borough of Southwark Building bombings in London

Bombing

Aftermath

See also

References