The car involved in the suspected "Real IRA" explosion in Birmingham at the weekend was bought only a few hours before the device partially detonated, West Midlands police said last night.
As police continued their investigation, a spokesman said three telephone warnings were made before the explosion, but only two were reported to the authorities.
West Midlands police said the bomb car, a beige Audi coupΘ, was bought on Saturday afternoon in the Walsall area of Birmingham, but it was not known where it was held from 2.30 p.m. until it was parked in the city centre later that day.
Only the detonator on the device, believed to contain about 30kg of home-made explosives, went off at 10.39 p.m., and no one was injured, but police said if the bomb had fully exploded it would have caused substantial loss of life.