1973 Westminster bombing

1973 Westminster bombing
Part of the Troubles
Thorney Street, looking south from the location of the blast
LocationCity of Westminster, London, United Kingdom
Coordinates51°29′38.36″N 0°7′33.94″W / 51.4939889°N 0.1260944°W / 51.4939889; -0.1260944
Date18 December 1973
08:50 (UTC)
Attack type
Car bomb
Deaths0
Injured60
PerpetratorProvisional Irish Republican Army

The 1973 Westminster bombing was a car bomb that exploded on Thorney Street, off Horseferry Road, in Millbank, London on 18 December 1973.[1] The explosion injured up to 60 people. The bomb was planted in a stolen car parked in front of the Home Office building when it exploded on Tuesday morning. Two telephone warnings were given within half an hour before the blast. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was responsible for the attack, which was assumed to have been in retaliation for the jailing of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade members who bombed the Old Bailey earlier in the year. A day earlier, the IRA sent two parcel bombs that targeted two politicians.[2][3]

It was one of many IRA car bombings in Northern Ireland and England during the Troubles.

  1. ^ "BOMB INCIDENTS (LONDON) (Hansard, 18 December 1973)". api.parliament.uk.
  2. ^ Peterson, Robert William; Chrisman, Willard George (March 1977). "1977 International terrorism threat analysis" (PDF). calhoun.nps.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 29 April 2018.
  3. ^ Carlton, David; Schaerf, Carlo (17 April 2015). International Terrorism and World Security. Routledge. ISBN 9781317480471 – via Google Books.