Two people were killed last night and 80 injured - 13 seriously - when the calm of a warm April evening in central London was torn asunder by a massive nail bomb which blew apart the well-known gay bar, the Admiral Duncan in Soho.
It is the third such bombing in two weeks, following nail bomb attacks in Brixton and Brick Lane.
A telephone caller claiming to be from the far-right group the White Wolves said it planted last night's bomb, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon told a news conference late last night. "We are linking this bomb to the bombs in Brixton and in Brick Lane," he said at New Scotland Yard.
It emerged that gays in London had been warned to be on their guard against a similar attack on their community.
Police visited pubs in the area warning landlords and drinkers to be vigilant and Sir Paul said that officers are believed to have visited the Admiral Duncan.
The blast happened at 6.37 p.m. when the Soho area was teeming with people celebrating the start of the May Bank Holiday weekend as well as pre-theatre crowds and people travelling through the popular area close to Chinatown to meet friends in other bars and restaurants.
The British Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, said last night that the people who planted the bomb showed "no humanity whatever" and police would spare no effort in tracking them down. . . we are dealing with people who have warped minds, right-wing extremists who are obviously racist and homophobic." The Conservative leader, Mr William Hague, condemned the attack as "appalling and barbaric" while the Liberal Democrat leader, Mr Paddy Ashdown, said it was an act of "mindless brutality" committed by "cowards of the highest order".
Eyewitnesses spoke of hearing a loud noise, like a clap of thunder or a gas explosion, and then widespread panic as glass and debris were strewn across Old Compton Street in front of the Admiral Duncan pub. Mr Nick Ames, who was close to the scene of the explosion, told Channel 4 News of the terrible injuries he saw immediately after the blast: "There was a huge plume of smoke coming out of the front of the Admiral Duncan pub. There was a person who was either inside the pub or a passer-by who was blown across the street . . . a man was being helped out of the pub with what seemed to be severe leg injuries, in fact his foot was more or less hanging off the end of his leg."
The injured, including some 60 walking wounded, were taken to St Thomas's Hospital, University College Hospital and the Royal London Hospital, where major incident alerts were declared and extra staff drafted in to care for the wounded. Miss Annie McGuinness, a surgeon and clinical director at University College Hospital, said seven patients remained in the hospital of which two were in intensive care and two were currently in the operating theatre.
All the patients were men and five had serious burns ranging from 25 per cent to 50 per cent. Two were amputees and some victims had lost lower limbs or parts of limbs.
Miss McGuinness said both patients in the operating theatre were critical and the two in intensive care were serious but not critical.
Miss McGuinness, who is from Belfast but who has been working at the hospital since 1996, said the horrific injuries were a painful reminder of incidents she had dealt with in Northern Ireland.
She said: "I am perhaps more familiar with these injuries, coming from Belfast, and it does bring back recollections of Northern Ireland, it is equally appalling."
One nurse at University College Hospital said it was possible that some of the people caught in the blast would lose limbs: "When a bomb goes off, if it's near you it shreds flesh, it's pretty horrible really. People have serious lacerations, deep wounds and there are some serious burns."
The gay community in London had feared an attack in the wake of the Brixton and Brick Lane nail bombings. Yesterday's edition of the Pink Paper - the newspaper for the gay community - warned of a possible attack and urged gays and lesbians to be vigilant.
Mr Peter Tatchell, spokesman for the gay rights group Outrage! said the gay community had believed the Old Compton Street area was a safe haven. "They felt able to relax and hold hands without fear of attack," he explained.
However, he was deeply critical of police policy after Brixton and Brick Lane which he said had focused on a purely racist motive: "Given that right-wing terrorists were being blamed for the first two bombings it was irresponsible for the police not to warn the gay and Jewish communities that they could be next. The police decision to focus solely on a racist motive for the earlier attacks was a big mistake."