Riot erupts in ’Derry after plain-clothes troops kill "hijacker’

Press, 12 June 1978, Page 9

Riot erupts in ’Derry after plain-clothes troops kill "hijacker’

AZP A Londonderry Troops used Army personnel carriers to force back rioters in the Bogside area of Londonderry on Saturday alter a man was shot dead in a terrorist attack.

A crowd of 300 to 400 peited security forces with stones and bottles and setl fire to a building and checkpoint. The violence erupted after an alleged hijack attempt on a car carrying soldiers in plain clothes, in which the man was killed. The Army said in a state- 1 ment that two ar ed terrorists had tried to hijack the car in Harvey Street, Londonderry. •One terrorist was killed and a loaded weapon recovered. The other terrorist ran away,” the statment said. There were no Army casualties. The dead man, in .is mid-' twenties, had three bullet wounds in his chest and one in the leg. He was dead on arrival at hospital. Soon after the shooting a crowd swept through from Bagside area into the city centre. Checkpoints were removed about a fortnight ago. A few j still have to be dismantled. The crowd wrecked a wooden grandstand erected] against the city walls i..l

Guildhall Square for a recent festival and used part I of it for barricades against soldiers and police. Youths set fire to a temporary wooden office used as the headquarters of the festival organisers and to one of the remaining checkpoints at Shipquay Gate., ! Shop windows into the city i centre were smashed. Stones and bottles were thrown at security forces before troops moved in using ! army personnel carriers. 1 Several streets between Bog- [ side and the city centre : were later sealed off. It was not clear how! many soldiers were in the unmarked car. The Army' would not discuss the role of the soldiers in driw-’g I around a Republican area of the city apparently under cover. A spokesman said civilian. vehicles were sometimes] :'d to allow “unobstrusive! movement” and soldiers in These vehicles were armed. The incident happened only metres from the scene ; of a similar shooting last ■ 'December, when a man tried

to hijack a car carrying plain-clothes soldie.s and was also shot dead in the street. The Ulster police chief, (Sir Kenneth Newman) has! denied that a report by Amnesty International, the ! Nobel Prize-winning human-1 . rights organisation, has proved allegations af police brutality against terrorist! ■suspects. He said it would be pre-; . mature to draw conclusions I until the contents of the re-1 [port had been subjected toi ] more comprehensive in-I vestigation. On Thursday, four days! after the Amnesty Inter-! ! national report was leaked ito the press, the British ! Government, agreed to conduct an independent inquiry I into police procedures and practices. The Government received Ithe report a month ago, and wanted more time to pre-! pare a rebuttal, but Amnesty] .International eventually de-! icided to make it available to; news organisations.