POLICE PROBE IRISH PARCEL BOMBS LINK
‘New IRA’ fears over devices sent to London airports and station
POssIBLE links to Irish Republican dissidents were being investigated last night after three explosive parcels with ‘Love Ireland’ stamps were posted to London airports and Waterloo station.
One burst into flames at Heathrow when an airport worker tried to open it, causing a small fire. Two other packages at City Airport and Waterloo were defused by bomb squad officers.
The crude explosives were stuffed into yellow padded envelopes inside A4sized postal bags. They bore Irish postal stamps, and Dublin was part of the sender’s address. Anti-terror police said all the devices were capable of blowing up, but luckily no one was injured.
security sources said it was too early to establish a clear motive, with ‘multiple possibilities’ including ‘mental health, general protest and grudges’.
However, there has been a surge in activity by dissident Republicans in Northern Ireland in recent years.
Last night security sources in Ireland told the Irish Daily Mail that they were investigating whether there were any links to the New IRA, the most active and organised of the dissident groups.
It was understood to be behind a large car bomb in Derry which exploded outside the city’s courthouse on a saturday evening in January.
The latest parcel bombs risk provoking anti-Irish sentiment in the UK at a highly sensitive time during the negotiations on the Border. The Irish Government has long warned that a hard Brexit could lead to an upsurge in dissident Republican violence.
Yesterday hundreds of office workers were evacuated durtive ing the bomb scares but passengers were largely unaffected because the airports and station were able to operate normally.
The Garda, the Irish Republic’s police force, were called in to assist scotland Yard anti-terror officers, after the parcels were sent with decora- red love-heart stamps issued by Ireland’s state postal service An Post.
The design, which has the words ‘ Love Eire’ written under the heart, was produced for last year’s wedding stamp range to add a romantic touch to greetings cards.
The bomber seems to have handwritten the package labels, which were addressed vaguely. The one that exploded was sent to ‘Heathrow The Compass Centre’ – which is an office housing the airport’s HQ and is based on the perimeter road. It was opened at 9.55am yesterday, and a photo showed where it had partially burst into flames. The fire was quickly extinguished and the building was evacuated.
At 11.40am, police were called to reports of a suspicious package in the post room of Waterloo, Britain’s busiest railway station which handles 94million passengers a year. The package, addressed ‘ London Waterloo station Approach’ – which is the name of a road on the edge of the station – had not been opened and officers made it safe. The station was not evacuated and train services ran normally.
At 12.15pm, a third bomb was received at City Aviation House, an office building a two-minute walk from the London City Airport passenger terminal. staff were evacuated and bomb squad officers were called to make the device safe. The Docklands Light Railway was briefly suspended but flights were unaffected.
The Waterloo parcel seems to have been marked ‘Bus Eireann Dublin’ in the sender’s details section, which is the name of a bus company and various bus depots in Dublin.
The bomb sent to Heathrow – Europe’s busiest airport – also said Dublin in the sender’s box.
security expert Will Geddes said: ‘It would appear that the addresses have been handwritten, which in itself will be potential forensic treasure for the investigators to try to trace who might have been the originator.’
The Metropolitan Police said: ‘These devices, at this early stage of the investigation, appear capable of igniting an initially small fire when opened.’
A Heathrow spokesman said: ‘We will be assisting with this investigation.’
‘A forensic treasure’