Blair: 'These people will never win'

In this story:

• Car used in blast stolen in Ireland
• Suspicion falls on Real IRA
• Residents lay flowers near scene
• Sinn Fein leaders jeered
• Related stories and sites

OMAGH, Northern Ireland (CNN) -- Top British and Irish security officials will meet Monday to plan a strategy for capturing those responsible for Saturday's terrorist bombing in Omagh that left 28 people dead and more than 220 injured.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to visit Omagh on Monday. He cut short his French vacation Sunday for an emergency meeting with Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern in Belfast.

Officials continue the investigation into Saturday's attack

"We have agreed the two governments will work together and will do everything possible in their power to hunt down those responsible for this outrage," Blair said. "Our determination has got to be that these people will never win and that democracy will triumph over evil."

David Trimble, who heads Northern Ireland's newly elected provincial assembly, called on both Catholic and Protestant church leaders to organize a day of mourning, perhaps on Tuesday, "for the whole community to come together and express its sorrow and to show that this evil act will not drive us back into violence."

Car used in blast stolen in Ireland

On Saturday, a 500-pound (224-kilogram) bomb tore through Market Street in the center of Omagh, a town about 70 miles (112 kilometers) west of Belfast. The street was filled with shoppers and people attending a festival.

A caller phoned in a bomb threat with a misleading location, causing authorities to unwittingly evacuate people into the path of the blast. It was the single deadliest terrorist attack in Northern Ireland during almost three decades of sectarian violence.

Police Chief Ronnie Flanagan disclosed Sunday that a maroon car used in the blast had been stolen last Thursday in the Irish Republic, near its border with the British-controlled province of Northern Ireland. It had been fitted with new Northern Ireland license plates.

Suspicion falls on Real IRA

While the identity of the bombers remains undetermined, suspicion is falling heavily on a group called the Real IRA, also known as the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, an offshoot of the Irish Republican Army.

The group opposes the recently approved power sharing agreement between Northern Ireland's Protestant and Catholic communities, which leaves the province under British control rather than reuniting it with the Irish Republic.

Security sources say the Real IRA's leader, Mickey McKevitt, is a former IRA arms chief who broke with the group last October. The group is believed to consist of about 10 experienced operatives.

In a potentially ominous development, local television reports said that members of Protestant paramilitary groups planned to meet Sunday to decide whether to break off a cease-fire and retaliate for the Omagh blast.

Residents lay flowers near scene

On Sunday, with several residents still missing after the blast, soldiers used heat-detecting equipment to determine whether more bodies lay hidden in the debris.

Shocked Omagh residents came to lay flowers at a railing on a busy street near the scene of the attack. Relatives clutched one another in silence as they placed bouquets on the pavement.

Two pathologists worked throughout the day to identify the remains, some of which were badly mangled. About 20 families kept a somber vigil in a nearby recreation center, waiting for news and checking updated lists of the injured -- and the dead. Some left in tears.

Sinn Fein leaders jeered

But there was anger when Gerry Adams, leader of Sinn Fein, the political arm of the IRA, showed up at the center with Martin McGuinness, his deputy.

Adams has said he condemns the bombing

Adams and McGuinness had previously denounced the Omagh bombing. But that didn't stop some bystanders from jeering and jostling the two men. One man jabbed Adams in the arm and shouted, "You have the blood of this town on your hands."

Another man challenged Adams and McGuinness, saying, "What about your friends? What do you think about what they have done?"

McGuinness snapped back, "They're no friends of ours." However, McGuinness rejected a request, made by former Irish Prime Minister John Bruton, that IRA commanders cooperate with Irish police in tracking down the bombers.

Trimble, leader of the largest Protestant political party, the Ulster Unionists, has said the IRA shares blame for the deaths in Omagh because the atrocity could have been prevented if the IRA had handed in its arms, which it has so far refused to do.