Operation Flavius - Bomb Plot

Bomb Plot

The IRA members planned to hide the bomb in a car to kill the band members of the Royal Anglian Regiment that would assemble for the parade. To ensure a parking space in the busy town area, it was necessary to occupy it on the preceding Sunday.

The SAS team was informed that the IRA had already placed their bomb and were ready to detonate it. The three conspirators were stopped as they walked near the Shell filling station in Winston Churchill Avenue, the busy main road leading to the airport and the frontier with Spain. McCann was then shot as the SAS claimed he made an 'aggressive move' towards a bag he was carrying. They stated that he was intending to trigger a car bomb using a remote control device. After McCann was killed, it was claimed that Farrell made a move towards her handbag and was shot on similar grounds. Sean Savage had been walking a short distance behind McCann and Farrell saw the challenge being made upon them, and turned around and started running back towards Gibraltar centre. He was pursued and finally caught up with on Smith Dorrien Avenue, close by a large Beech tree where he was shot between 16 and 18 times.

McCann was shot five times, Farrell eight times, and Savage between 16 and 18 times. All three were subsequently found to be unarmed, and without any kind of remote trigger. An explosive device, including 64 kg of Semtex, were later found by the Spanish police in a car in Marbella, 74 kilometres (46 mi) away in Spain, identified by keys found in Farrell's handbag.