I.R.LA. begins 'war’ on shops

Press, 28 October 1981, Page 8

I.R.LA. begins 'war’ on shops

NZPA-Reuter London A bomb blast that claimed one life in a busy London shopping street has marked the start of a new economic war by Irish extremists in mainland Britain. Irish Republican sources said yesterday.

In yesterday’s blast, the third Irish Republican Army bomb attack in London in three weeks, a police explosives expert was killed when he attempted to defuse a 2.2 kg device in an Oxford Street hamburger bar.

A second bomb was defused in a neighbouring department store and another shop was still being searched in the early hours yesterday. The I.R.A. said in a telephone call to NZPAReuter, about half an hour before the fatal explosion, that three bombs had been planted. The hamburger bar, crowded with schoolchildren on their half-term holiday, was safely evacuated before the blast.

The I.R.A. later claimed responsibility for planting the bombs. In Belfast I.R.A. sources said the choice of civilian targets was deliber-

ate and that this marked the start of an economic war to disrupt pre-Christmas shopping, the British retail trade’s annual sales bonanza. The police warned Britons to be on the alert for further bombs. The other two attacks in London this month by Irish guerrillas were directed at soldiers.

On October 10, a remotecontrolled ■ nail bomb exploded as a coachload of soldiers passed. Two civilians nearly died from their injuries and 40 people were hurt.. The seriously injured included eight soldiers.

A week later the commander of the Royal Marines had a leg amputated when a guerrilla bomb exploded in his car as he drove away from his London suburban home.

A Dublin, spokesman fbr the 1.R.A., which is fighting to end British rule in Northern Ireland, said yesterday: “Let the. British people take note that Irish children, the victims of plastic bullets fired by their soldiers, do not have the luxury of receiving warnings. In future when we give warnings, respect them."