Central London hit by explosion

February 18, 1996
Web posted at: 6:55 p.m. EST (2355 GMT)

LONDON (CNN) -- An explosion on a double-decker bus Sunday evening injured several people, police said.

Scotland Yard spokesman Andrew Spencer said there were a number of injuries. Some reports indicate about 10 people have been injured.

Witnesses said that the bus was badly damaged.
(Phone report from CNN's Charles Hoff 434K AIFF sound or 434K WAV sound)

"There's not much left of the bus," said one police officer on the scene. Another witness, Anthony Yates, 26, was quoted as saying "I was walking down the road and I saw a big white flash in the sky. I looked and saw a double-decker bus but there was nothing left of it, it was completely blown to pieces."

There was no warning prior to the blast, police said.

The blast occurred at 10:38 p.m. in the Strand district, near Trafalgar Square, at the edge of the city's theater district.

Police could not confirm what caused the explosion, and the area was sealed off as emergency vehicles arrived.

A bomb exploded in a London financial district on February 9, killing 2 people. The Irish Republican Army claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred just minutes after the IRA had announced an end to a 17-month cease-fire.

On Thursday, police detonated a device found in a telephone booth on Charing Cross Road. The IRA also claimed responsibility for that, too.

The IRA renounced the cease-fire because it claims the British government is moving too slowly to resolve the decades old conflict over control of Northern Ireland.

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AP and Reuters contributed to this report.