LONDON was back on bomb alert last night, after a failed IRA attempt to blow up Hammersmith Bridge using probably the biggest high explosive device ever planted in Britain.
The bomb - found on the bridge over the Thames in west London late on Wednesday night after an IRA warning - contained more than 30lb of high explosives, almost certainly Semtex.
Scotland Yard said it was meant to kill, cause injury and major structural damage to Hammersmith Bridge and enormous disruption to London and its community".
The bomb had two separate devices. And while the detonators are thought to have gone off - causing two small explosions - the bomb itself failed to detonate. One explosives expert said the explosives "would have brought the bridge down" had they been placed in the right spot.
While Dr Sidney Alford speculated that this might have been a "warning" attack, and that the bombs were never intended to go off, it seemed the capital narrowly escaped an IRA "spectacular" coinciding with the anniversary date of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The two small explosions occurred just 30 minutes after a London news agency received two telephone warning calls from someone claiming to represent the IRA and using a recognised code word. The first warning was received at 10.22 p.m. Police had located the two devices, and were withdrawing to a safe position, when there were two small explosions at around 10.50 p.m. The bombs proper were made safe by bomb disposal experts. There were no injuries.
The attempt to bomb the bridge was the sixth incident in London since the Docklands bombing which marked the end of the IRA ceasefire on February 9th, and in which two men died. It was the second attack in the week marked by the passage of legislation in the House of Commons to enable the May 30th elections leading to all party talks starting on June 10th.
The British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, yesterday repeated that Sinn Fein and the IRA must renounce violence or face exclusion from the negotiations on Northern Ireland's future. Responding to the Hammersmith attack, he said: "As far as Sinn Fein and the IRA are concerned with their tired old combination of bullets and bombs, Sinn Fein and the IRA remain locked in the past. And while they do so, they must remain outside the democratic consensus established by the two governments and outside the democratic consensus of all the other parties in Northern Ireland.
Mr Major continued: "I repeat again to Sinn Fein, that they have a choice and they cannot duck it if they wish to become a democratic party they must make it clear that they will have no truck, now or in the future, with violence of the sort we have seen."
But there are increasing signs that republican calculations are geared to the next British general election, and Mr Major's possible removal from office. Mr Martin McGuinness told the Channel 4 Dispatches programme: "As we speak at the moment, I don't believe that John Major is the British prime minister who will move decisively to resolve this conflict. I think that in reality we are actually sitting here hoping that the quicker there is a British general election the better, so that we can then move on and deal with whoever else comes into power."