THE massive explosion which shattered London's peace last night plunged Mr John Major's government into acute crisis over the future direction of its Northern Ireland policy. The prime minister expected to convene an emergency cabinet meeting to consider a detailed response to the attack amid pressing questions about a devastating failure of intelligence.
Two people were critically injured and four seriously injured in the explosion which rocked the docklands area of east London just on 7 p.m. as rumours swept London that the IRA had called off its 17 month "cessation of military operations".
A five year old girl suffered facial injuries and another 100 people were described as "walking wounded". Fleets of ambulances ferried the injured to the Royal London Hospital, as 80 firefighters stood by amid police fears of a possible second device.
As forensic experts scoured the debris, the early indications were that "a device" had exploded close to South Quay, a station on the Docklands Light Railway near the Canary Wharf complex.
It was thought the device had been planted in an underground car park. Two buildings were partially wrecked by the powerful blast, which was heard three miles away at Limehouse. Glass showered the surrounding area as hundreds of workers remained trapped in their offices. British Transport Police were able to evacuate the station before the explosion occurred.
Pending a detailed intelligence assessment, the British government refused to rush to judgment about who carried out the attack oar its larger implications for the peace process".
But Mr Major immediately condemned it as "an appalling outrage" and challenged the Sinn Fein leadership and the IRA "to condemn immediately and unequivocally those who planted this bomb and any suggestion that the ceasefire is now over".
The prime minister's statement continued: "It would be a tragedy if the hopes of the people of Britain and Northern Ireland for lasting peace were dashed again by the men of violence. This atrocity confirms again the urgent need to remove illegal arms from the equation."
Mr Major's call for Sinn Fein/IRA condemnation of the attack - issued before a statement by Mr Gerry Adams - was immediately echoed by the Labour leader, Mr Tony Blair, who described the attack as "sickening" and added: "An outrage like this simply makes it harder for the government to continue the peace process, so it is not only callous and unacceptable but counterproductive.
British ministers and security chiefs will meet today and: throughout the weekend to assess: the internal state of the republican movement and the implications of last night's attack for the present Sinn Fein leadership.
But, while Mr Major said that he remained "committed to the search for peace in Northern Ireland", he will find himself under enormous pressure from unionist MPs and his own back benches to answer the attack with a stepping up of security measures in Britain and in the North.
And for all the official hope that last night's attack does not presage a full scale resumption of the IRA campaign, ministers and their security advisers will have to seriously consider the reversal of at least some of the measures announced in response to the original IRA cessation.
The Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, in consultation with the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, is certain to review security arrangements at police and other security establishments.
The former Northern Ireland minister, Mr Michael Mates, said those responsible for the bombing had made "a huge tactical error".
Mr Mates, who remains close to government thinking and is an important barometer of back bench opinion at Westminster, continued: "Not only will it rightly attract the opprobrium of the world, but it has confirmed all the fears that the British government and the unionists had that the ceasefire was only a ploy for the IRA to get its way, and if it didn't get its way it would resort to violence."
Reflecting the instinctive reluctance to believe that the cessation of violence was over, which permeated much of Whitehall, Mr Mates said: "The best interpretation to put on this would be that this is a breakaway part of the IRA and that it has been perpetrated by those who didn't want to go down the path to peace."