Britain and Northern Ireland are in the grip of a terrorist campaign by dissident Irish republicans and must be alert to the likelihood of more attacks. That was the grim warning from Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist chief as he pointed the finger of blame at the "Real IRA" or the Continuity IRA for yesterday's explosion outside BBC Television Centre in London, and spoke of his fears of more attacks to come.
The latest suspected dissident republican attack threatened to affect tomorrow's expected multiparty talks in Belfast, as Mr David Trimble stepped up his demand for IRA decommissioning and the Conservatives warned against any further demilitarisation moves.
The Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Mr Alan Fry, said only prompt action by the emergency services had prevented devastating consequences from the blast, in which one man was injured.
Bomb-disposal officers had been attempting to effect a controlled explosion when the device - concealed in a taxi, packed with between 10lb and 20lb of high explosives - detonated at about 12.30 a.m.
A huge orange fireball lit up the night sky as the blast sent shards of glass flying, causing counter-blasts which knocked pictures off walls in homes up to a quarter of a mile away, and non-structural damage to buildings nearby.
At 11.22 p.m. a London hospital had received the first of two coded telephone calls warning of a bomb in a taxi outside the centre in west London, which could "go off any minute".
The red taxi was parked outside the main entrance on the wrong side of the road with its headlights on. It was 30 minutes later when the device detonated.
"It was not a controlled explosion. That was when the device was timed to go off," Mr Fry told a press conference. He could not say if the explosive was Semtex but said the taxi had been bought on Saturday from a north London dealer for £300 by a man with a Northern Irish accent.
Linking the blast to three other attacks in London attributed to republicans in the past year, Mr Fry said: "We have been predicting since Christmas that the mainland, and London in particular, were to be subject to terrorist attacks. This was one of those attacks. I can only fear we will see more."
Police have neither confirmed nor ruled out a link with the torch-bomb blast two weeks ago which blinded a 14-year-old Territorial Army cadet.
Warning that the police and public were dealing with "ruthless terrorists . . . prepared to use ruthless tactics without any care for the consequences," Mr Fry said: "Once again we see that coded warnings have put the public at risk."
Downing Street condemned the attack and said it would not deter the government from its determination to secure the Northern peace process. But any lingering hopes of a sudden break in the decommissioning/demilitarisation/policing deadlock were further shaken as the First Minister and Ulster Unionist leader, Mr Trimble, said it was increasingly difficult to distinguish between the "Real IRA" and mainstream republicans.
Mr Trimble told the BBC there was evidence of material and expertise leaking from the Provisionals to dissident republican groups.
While his point was that the BBC blast would suggest dissident republican attempts to counter British government pressure on the Provisional IRA to decommission, his comments are likely to be seized on by anti-agreement unionists pressing for Ulster Unionist withdrawal from the power-sharing Executive.