UXBRIDGE, England -- A bomb exploded at a Royal Air Force base Thursday in a powerful blast heard 2 miles away, causing major damage but no serious injuries because guards found the device seven minutes before it went off and evacuated 50 people.
'There most likely would have been many fatalities' if the bomb, set among gasoline drums, had not been spotted, Scotland Yard spokesman Phillip Powell said.
An anonymous caller to UPI 2 hours after the blast at Uxbridge training base claimed it was the work of the 'London 2nd Battalion of the Irish Republican Army.'
But there was some doubt about the claim as the caller referred to an explosion at an RAF base at Hendon, about 10 miles from Uxbridge.
Scotland Yard said it was aware of a number of claims and was investigating.
The blast came 24 hours after a mailman intercepted a 'simple but dangerous' parcel bomb addressed to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Scotland Yard has warned leading Britons they might be the targets of a new mailbomb campaign and urged the general public to remain alert.
A military security patrol, alerted by gasoline fumes, found the bomb, a RAF-blue satchel bag sprouting wires, nestled among the four yellow five-gallon plastic containers holding gasoline in an alcove near the area where the band was taking a tea break from rehearsal.
The three-man patrol immediately evacuated 35 members of an air force band and 15 other people from the three-story building, then, shortly before 6 p.m. (1 p.m. EST) returned to the building and removed the containers to a safe area.
Seven minutes later, before bomb disposal experts could defuse the device, it exploded, Powell said.
The blast, heard 2 miles away, caused major damage to the barracks and blew out windows in homes around the base. But Scotland Yard, calling it a 'major explosion,' said the only injuries were two nearby residents slightly cut by flying glass off.
'There was a terrific bang,' said 19 year-old Elizabeth Pearce who lives nearby. 'Then glass started coming out of the barrack block and there was a lot of smoke.
'I saw people running toward the block from inside the camp, then I ran for home.'
ScotlandYard's anti-terrorist squad rushed to the base, located in the western outskirts of the capital, and sent in dogs to sniff out a possible second bomb. The base was put on full security alert.
In the last major bombing in the capital, two devices blew up a domestic gas depot in east London New Year's Eve but there were no casualties. No one claimed responsibility for that attack.
In an attack similar to the Uxbridge blast, two suspected IRA bombs blew up in a militia drill hall in west London in early December, at the height of a hunger strike by IRA prisoners in Northern Ireland. There were no deaths.
