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 yet planted in Britain.
The bomb - found on the bridge over the Thames in west London late on Wednesday night after an IRA warning - contained over 30lbs of high explosive, 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 British Prime Minister, Mr Major, repeated yesterday that Sinn Fein and the IRA must renounce violence or face exclusion from the negotiations on Northern Ireland's future.