Warrington bomb attacks

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The Warrington bomb attacks took place in Warrington, England in 1993. The first attack, on a gasworks, created a huge fireball but no casualties (however a policeman was shot and injured after stopping a van^[1]), but the second attack on Bridge Street killed two children and injured many other people. The attacks were conducted by the Provisional IRA.^[2]

The first attack took place on 26 February 1993. Three devices exploded (and unignited incendiary made safe) at the gasworks causing extensive damage.

At 11:58am on the day before Mother's Day, (20 March 1993), the telephone help charity The Samaritans received a coded message that a bomb was going to be detonated outside the Boots shop in Liverpool, fifteen miles away from Warrington. Merseyside Police investigated, and also warned the Cheshire Constabulary (who patrolled Warrington) of the threat, but it was too late to evacuate. At 12:12pm two bombs exploded, one outside Boots on Bridge Street and one outside the Argos catalogue store. It later turned out that the bombs had been placed inside cast-iron litter bins, causing large amounts of shrapnel.

Buses were organised to ferry people away from the scene and 20 paramedics and crews from 17 ambulances were sent to deal with the aftermath.

Eyewitnesses of the time said that "the first explosion drove panicking shoppers into the path of the next blast just seconds later."

There were two fatalities from the blast. A 3 year-old boy named Johnathan Ball died at the scene whilst buying a Mother's Day card, accompanied by his babysitter. A 12-year-old boy, Tim Parry who was sitting on the bin at the time, took the full force of the blast. Five days later he died of his injuries.