THE British Prime Minister, Mr Major, said he believed the IRA was behind the chaos caused on three motorways in the British midlands yesterday when two bombs and several suspect devices were discovered. No one has yet admitted responsibility.
Speaking during his election campaign in the north of England, Mr Major said the devices were planted "deliberately to cause trouble".
"I think most people know what the IRA are and see them for what they are. Yet again they have shown the nature of the people they are.
The Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, who said at the weekend that if the IRA announced an immediate ceasefire Sinn Fein could be admitted to talks in June, condemned the alerts.
"We utterly condemn this action... The IRA and Sinn Fein must understand that a new Labour government would oppose tooth and nail the use of violence and terrorist methods for political ends," she said.
No one was injured during the security alerts, but motoring organisations described the scene on three of Britain's major routes as "complete chaos". The M1 motorway was not reopened until the early evening while sections of the M5 and M6 will remained closed until after this morning's rush hour at the earliest.
The chief constable of Northamptonshire police, Mr Chris Fox, said the coded warnings the police had received appeared to be a tactic used by the IRA.
The security alert began early yesterday when West Midlands police closed the M6 between junctions 7 and 10 after two businesses in the area received "coded warnings" that a bomb had been placed on the motorway and would explode within an hour. Police said the telephone calls were made between 8 and 8.30 a.m and that the caller had an Irish accent. A known codeword wad used.
The M6 was closed as army bomb disposal teams and police officers carried out a search. As the search was being carried out, two "small explosion type sounds" were heard near junction 9.
During a search of the junction, the bomb disposal team found a "suspect device" attached to a pillar supporting the road near Bescot, in Walsall. The explosion sound was later discovered to be a detonator on a second device exploding. Two controlled explosions were carried out between 2.51 p.m. and 4p.m. and the police later confirmed that the device was a "viable bomb".
Police later revealed that they had discovered a second bomb at junction 9. Detectives said its detonator had exploded but the bomb itself had not detonated. The assistant chief constable of West Midlands police, Mr Bob Packham, said if the bomb had gone off it would have caused "considerable damage and, potentially, toss of life as well".
In a separate incident, sections of the M1 were closed just after 8 a.m. when Northamptonshire police were contacted by Warwickshire police saying it had received an "authenticated" telephone call warning of a suspect device on the motorway. Large sections of the M1, M5 and M6 motorways were closed down "causing massive traffic problems", a spokeswoman from Northamptonshire police said.
While police searched the area, a box was found on the A428 road which runs underneath the M1. While a controlled explosion was carried out, the box did not contain a bomb. The army later carried out a second controlled explosion on a cardboard box.
The AA said traffic disruptions would continue on sections of the M6 today.