Irish bomb suspects give police slip after cross-country chase

Press, 21 December 1978, Page 8

Irish bomb suspects give police slip after cross-country chase

International

NZPA London Policemen hunting Irish terrorist bombers were fired on from a car which they chased but lost early yesterday as the British police’s campaign to counter the wave of bomb attacks this week reached full intensity.

The Hampshire CountyPolice said that a two-man! patrol near Aidershot, 48km south-west of London, spotted a white Ope! saloon hired by the. gang with a stolen "driver’s licence. _As they pursued the car into the' neighbouring Surrey county, a shotgun was fired but missed the patrolmen. The police spokesman said the wanted car was chased around a factory estate and then lost in the darkness at the village of Badshot Lea. He said that a large force of armed police officers from Surrey drove into the area and began searching. The Opel was one ot four cars hired by men with Irish accents last week. Two of the cars were turned into bombs and blew up in centra! London early Monday. causing damage but no serious initirv . 1 ;j ’ .

The 'third car was found with an unexploded bomb on the back seat.

An unexploded bomb was also discovered on a road petrol tanker being driven into Europe’s largest oil refinery, Fawley on the south coast near Southampton. Republican sources in Belfast said they had been planted by “sleepers” who had lived in British cities for some time and may have already returned to ground. According to some reports. the police were searching for a 40-year-old former Belfast taxi, driver, a top I.R.A. man who had travelled to Britain to actiIvate the “sleeper” group. The provisional wing of the I.R.A. claimed responsibility for the car bombs and for seven other explosions in five : provincial English cities on Sunday, renewing mainland attacks after a 22month lull. Meanwhile, 2000 uniformed police, including armed marksmen mingled with Christmas shoppers in the crowded streets of the West End of London, in what Scotland Yard dubbed “Operation. Santa” —? its biggestever antf-terrorfst operation.

Al! leave was cancelled I for the rest of the 21,500- , man force in metropolitan . London and all police in the J capital were ordered to| stand 12-hour duty stretchesi| instead of the normal eight,, hours. “The object is to put al' visible police presence on I; the streets” said a Yard 1 spokesman. Small groups of f officers will be stationed at ' street corners or on patrol ' in small areas, with the object of deterring bombers from parking areas with bombs or depositing parcel bombs. Armed troops have moved into Heathrow Airport. More than 60 troops, wearing battle dress and i carrying automatic rifles, de-r scended on Heathrow an a [convoy of Scorpion and I Saracen armoured cars. Two Scorpion arfnoured cars patrolled Heathrow’s 1 central passenger area and soldiers mounted a guard on car parks next to the terminals — a key area for ter- , rorist bombs. Other patrols took up positions on the perimeter 1 road near the Perry Oaks. fuel dump and at the entrance to the British Airways maintenance base at Hatton Cross. Heathrow has been on a security red alert since terrorist bombs exploded in the early hours of Monday morning.

Special Branch detectives were keeping a close watch on passengers flying to Belfast and the Irish Republic and tmnouncements were made in departure lounges warning passengers not to leave, their luggage unattended- at any time. Meanwhile, in Belfast, eight people were injured in a car-bomb explosion and . a soldier was shot dead in separate incidents. A policeman who took the full force of the car bomb explosion lost a leg and an arm and was said to be in danger of losing his other leg. Another policeman was

less seriously hurt, and six other people suffered minor injuries and shock. [ And a British soldier has : been shot dead and another I wounded in a sniper attack [as they were on a routine [patrol in Belfast, an Army ’[spokesman has said. I A full-scale search operlation was launched after the shooting. The dead soldier was the eleventh killed by guerrillas in Northern Ireland this year. In a brief statement issued after a Cabinet meeting ini Dublin, the Irish Prime Min-i ister (Mr Jack Lynch) andi his colleagues branded thei terrorist attacks as “particu-i I larly abhorrent” because [they had been timed for the Christmas period. They Irish Ministers pledged their full co-oper-ation in preventing a repetition of the bombings but they also stressed once more that, in Dublin’s opinion, the British Government could help find a solution to the Northern Ireland crisis by declaring their interests in Irish unjty.