Warrington Bomb Attacks - Second Attack

Second Attack

Shortly before midday on 20 March 1993, telephone help charity The Samaritans received a coded message that a bomb was going to be detonated outside the Boots shop in Liverpool, about 15 miles (24 km) away from Warrington. Merseyside Police investigated, and also warned the Cheshire Constabulary (who patrolled Warrington). About 30 minutes later, at about 12:25, two bombs exploded on Bridge Street in Warrington. The blasts happened within a minute of each-other. One exploded outside Boots and McDonalds, showering fifty children in the restaurant with glass, and one outside the Argos catalogue store. The area was crowded with shoppers. Witnesses said that "the first explosion drove panicking shoppers into the path of the next blast just seconds later". It was later found that the bombs had been placed inside cast-iron litter bins, causing large amounts of shrapnel. Buses were organized to ferry people away from the scene and 20 paramedics and crews from 17 ambulances were sent to deal with the aftermath.

Three-year-old Johnathan Ball died at the scene, while his babysitter survived. The second victim, 12-year-old Tim Parry, who received the full force of the blast, was gravely wounded. He died on 25 March 1993 when doctors switched his life support machine off, having asked permission to do so from his family, after a series of tests had found minimal brain activity. Fifty-four other people were injured, four of them seriously.

The day after the bombing, the IRA admitted that its volunteers had planted the bombs. In a statement, it said:

Responsibility for the tragic and deeply regrettable death and injuries caused in Warrington yesterday lies squarely at the door of those in the British authorities who deliberately failed to act on precise and adequate warnings.

A day later, an IRA spokesman said that "two precise warnings" had been given "in adequate time", one to the Samaritans and one to Merseyside Police. He added: "You don't provide warnings if it is your intention to kill". Cheshire's assistant chief constable denied there had been a second warning and said: "If the IRA think they can pass on their responsibility for this terrible act by issuing such a nonsensical statement, they have sadly underestimated the understanding of the British public".