LONDON BOMBINGS.
By Geoffrey Wansell and Christopher Warman .
The TIMES ,9th May , 1973.
A huge car bomb exploded outside the Central Criminal Court in Old Bailey, London, at 2.49 pm yesterday. Secretaries and office workers hurrying from neighbouring buildings after a police warning to leave -were caught by the full force of the blast.
More than 140 were injured. One man collapsed and died later after discharging himself following treatment at St Bartholomew's Hospital.
A lawyer going into the court buildings and a man passing the dark green Ford Cortina who was thrown into the air by the explosion, were seriously injured.
Two of the other badly injured men were policemen, one of whom was still busy clearing the area. The other was a police photographer, who was taking pictures of the suspected car when the bomb exploded. The first news that a bomb had been planted near the Central Criminal Court came in a telephone call to The Times who immediately informed Scotland Yard.
Commander Ernest Bright, of the City of London police, who was in charge of operations at the Central Criminal Court after the explosion, said “We were first alerted at about a quarter to three after a telephone call from The Times giving us a deadline of 3 pm. We were still clearing the area when the bomb went off. . Three of our officers were injured in the explosion one of them seriously.
It was absolute chaos. A number of policemen and a number of court officials were injured. We had only about eight minutes to clear the area, and it is very difficult to get people out of congested spaces quickly."
He said the street was still busy with pedestrians when the bomb went off.
Fragments of the car and glass from buildings all around Old Bailey covered a wide area, showering, passers-by as well as injuring many people still in their offices.
A coachload of 49 children, mostly girls, had a narrow escape.They had been driven from their school at Margate, Kent, to look at St Paul's Cathedral. Mr. John Stuopples. aged 61, from Ramsgate, driver of the coach, said "A policeman stopped us just outside the Old Bailey courts. He told me to drive back as far as I could and get the children out. Their teacher took them back down Fleet Lane to underneath the arches and about two minutes later the bomb went off.
"I was sitting in the cab about 25 yards away from the car when saw it go up. and parts fly through the air. All the glass in the coach round me, and the windscreen, shattered but I was not touched. I was very lucky."
Onlookers said they did not know what was happening. One said; " We just saw children running down the street screaming. Then the bomb went off and glass fell down all round us.”
Mr. Tim Williamson, who runs an accountancy agency in the block opposite the courts and directly above the George public house outside which the car exploded, said:" Someone came into my office saying there was a bomb scare about two minutes before the bomb went off."
Mr. Williamson said: "I wandered into Old Bailey. I was standing between two cars when all of a sudden I saw, or rather felt, the explosion, and then saw the smoke, about 25 yards away. I could see a policeman lying on the ground unconscious and there was another policeman near me, who kept shouting ' It's my chest, I cannot breathe.' I went to help him, and other police arrived.
" All I was thinking was that this is ridiculous. This can't be happening ." The police kept a cordon round the area after casualties from the explosion had been taken to hospital, because they had a report of a second bomb. Every car in the area was examined before the police declared the area clear.
Comander Bright, commenting on the day of explosions, said:" We were not expecting anything to happen, but we were taking all the precautions we could. We were trying to anticipate what might happen because of the plebiscite in Northern Ireland. 'We have been looking after all prominent buildings in the City. Be assured that we are taking the appropriate action.”
Staff reporters write: The first response to the telephoned warning was the arrival of police cars to block off the road, although not much effort was made to clear the area of onlookers. A space was cleared behind the suspect car when a parked vehicle was driven away. The car was 60 or 70ft from the main entrance of the old Central Criminal Court.
At about 2.30 pm a policeman said that a car had been found to be "positive ". The buildings opposite the Central' Criminal Court were being evacuated, and a police control van and more policemen arrived. There were still many people in the immediate area of the car and lawyers and other people were permitted to walk past it.
Mr.Fred Shepherd, a photographer working for The Times, said last night: " When I got to Old Bailey the street was milling with groups of policemen walking about. That was about 2.30. They were sauntering about ,one after another ,having a look. Then a police photographer came down.
"Then all of a sudden, a couple of police cars appeared and they blocked off the road from the top. The police went down to close the road from the other end. Then they started to shoo people out.
" I think they had got just about everybody out when it happened. Before that there was a sort of nonchalance about the whole thing. Obviously they did not expect it to go off. The car looked empty.
"When it went up I was in the middle of the road, barely 60, perhaps 50, yards up. When the blast came I seemed to be blown over. Then I shielded myself from the falling debris. I saw several policemen fall down. Just before they started to clear people out a detective told me to get out, as the car was going to go up. Towards the end of the incident they got more business- like."
Mr G.H. Warhurst, another photographer with The Times, was sent to Dean Stanley Street. He said: "We got the message about 2 and drove down there, arriving about 2.10. There was the car just parked there, there wasn't a soul about. Then the police arrived and started looking up and down the cars and people started moving the cars and evacuating the buildings. " Then these two men arrived and pushed the windows out. They opened the door and ripped the back seat out and it was all packed with bags of explosive, all bound up with yards of wire. They were shouting at everyone: 'Get those people out of here.' Then they packed the stuff up."
A barrister appearing in one of the courts in the main building of the Central Criminal Court said afterwards that the bomb exploded less than five minutes after a warning had been passed to the judge.
"One counsel had just began his final speech when a note was passed to the judge. The judge interrupted him, saying. 'There is apparently a bomb outside, so we will rise for the day'
"All the jury just left as well as others, and I remained, not taking the warning very seriously. Less than five minutes later, possibly as little as three or four minutes, the bomb went off.
"I ran out.The lobby was covered in broken glass and the twisted metal of broken window frames. People were screaming, and a number of people I could see were injured."
Traffic between the area around the Old Bailey and Whitehall was jammed as the police diverted motorists and closed lanes to allow free access to ambulances, fire engines and police vehicles. The Central Criminal Court extension, one of the buildings to take the brunt of yesterday's explosion in Old Bailey, was designed with security in mind. It is a reinforced concrete framed building, windowless at ground-floor level and with steel grilles to close over the doors. Its walls. which showed signs of only superficial damage after the explosion, are Portland stone, facing bonded brick. Even the slate tile roof rests on concrete planks supported in turn by a steel frame.
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