Baby falls victim to Belfast bombing

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32788, 13 December 1971, Page 17

Baby falls victim to Belfast bombing

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

BELFAST, December 12.

A bomb exploded among lunch-hour Christmas shoppers in Belfast yesterday and killed four persons, including a baby boy and a two-year-old girl.

Later in the day British troops found a huge arms cache in a Belfast house; there was no evidence to connect this with the explosion.

The girl was killed in her pram and toe baby, aged seven months, died in a mass of rubble. Nineteen persons were injured, two seriously. “It’s terrible, just terrible,” said a young constable as volunteers worked barehanded in. the wreckage of the furniture showroom where toe blast occurred. The explosion, caused by a heavy bomb, took place in the mile-long Shankill Road, a Protestant area that has been quiet for months. The blast blew the shop-front into the street, injuring passers-by. Angry Protestants gathered

at the scene as troops moved in to prevent incidents. “How long can the authorities expect us to put up with this?” one resident exclaimed. “If the Army and police cannot check the incidents, we will have to do something.” In Londonderry, busy Saturday shoppers had to take cover when bullets ricocheted in a crowded street. The Army said that their bullets hit two people who had been throwing nailbombs. They said that the men were dragged away without the extent of their injuries becoming apparent. BERETS IN CACHE Late last night the Army announced the finding of the cache, one of the biggest arms and ammunition dumps found since 1969. It included 10,000 rounds of ammunition, a rocket launcher, eight grenades, 11 stick grenades, four Clay-

more mines, 20 relay timing devices for bombs and bombmaking materials. The Army said that there was also a stock of berets similar to those used by members of the outlawed Irish Republican Army and other items of clothing. The find was made during a random search by an Army patrol in the Clifton Park suburb of Belfast, an Army spokesman said. INQUIRY DEMANDED The latest incidents come after demands for an inquiry into a death at a Belfast dance hall on Friday night. After shots were fired in the hall, John Parker, aged 25, from -the Roman Catholic Ardoyne area was killed and a police sergeant injured. Residents allege that the only bullets were fired by soldiers. The Army said that the victim must have been struck by a gunman's bullet or a ricochet.