BOMB OUTRAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1939, Page 5

BOMB OUTRAGES

EXPLOSIONS IN THE HEART OF LONDON ATTRIBUTED TO I.R.A. i DAMAGE DONE IN BANKS & SHOPS. THEATRE CROWDS ALARMED. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. LONDON, June 25. After <i period of quiescence the weekend was marked by further bond) explosions, attributed to the activities of the Irish Republican Army, following the banning of its operations in Ireland. Bombs which burst at the corner of Piccadilly Circus and Shaftesbury Avenue and elsewhere i constituted the most daring outrage yet perpetrated in London, injuring at least three people and attracting great crowds. The first bomb exploded in front ol a tobacconist’s shop, scattering cigarboxes and tins of tobacco over ■ the pavement, shattering the windows of the Westminster Bank, and throwing a newspaper-seller down the steps of the underground railway. Onlookers says that two men drove up in a taxi; one threw something and the other disappeared in the crowd. Diners in an adjoining Chinese lestaurant were . seriously startled. The place was littered with broken glass. The second explosion occurred outside Lloyd’s Bank in Piccadilly, smashing the windows of the building. A taxi-driver saw two men wearing raincoats dash into the Piccadilly subway. The third explosion occurred at the corner of Aldwych and Bow streets just as the theatre crowds were dispersing. The pavement was littered with glass. There were cries of “Lynch them” from the theatre-goers, who dropped handbags and ran for their lives.

An explosion at the Midland Bank, Park Lane, blew out the front and hurled the front door and a safe across the road into Hyde Park. Guests at adjacent fashionable hotels began dressing, but were reassured. Three men were taken to Vine Street police station. An incendiary bomb burst in a pillarbox outside Madame Tussaud’s inMarylebone Road. No one was injured. A bomb was found in the cloakroom of Oxford Circus station. NINETEEN VICTIMS TREATED AT HOSPITAL. ONE LIKELY TO LOSE AN EYE. LONDON, June 25. Nineteen persons were treated at Charing Cross Hospital as a result of the overnight bombings. It is feared that one will lose an eye. A nightwatchman found three incendiary packages early this morning inside Madame Tussaud's. Two of them caused small fires, damaging a model. The third exploded 'harmlessly when plunged into water. I.R.A. DEMANDS DEMONSTRATION MARCH IN LONDON. PILGRIMAGE PREVENTED IN IRELAND. (Received This Day. 9.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 25. Bearing banners demanding the release of imprisoned- Irish Republicans, 200 Irishmen and a few women marched past the scenes of Saturday night’s explosions (which resulted in nineteen persons being admitted to hospital) to Trafalgar Square, where speakers condemned British imperialism. Three hundred police prevented thousands of demonstrators making a pilgrimage to Wolfe Tone’s grave at Bodenstown. An open air protest meeting burned a Union Jack in a Dublin Street.