BOMB CAR STOLEN IN REPUBLIC
Bomb car stolen in Republic says RUC
THE car used to transport the Omagh bomb was stolen in the Irish Republic last Thursday, RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan disclosed last night.
The maroon Vauxhall Cavalier disappeared in Carrickmacross,Co Monaghan, not far from the border, before being fitted with new Northern Ireland registration plates.
The disclosure came as Mr Flanagan and Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, prepared to meet for talks as part of the huge investigation into the atrocity.
Police said the car was parked close to the bottom of Market Street in Omagh, close to the junction with Dublin Road - even though the terrorists claimed in a phone call that it had been abandoned at the top end of High Street near the town's courthouse, several hundred yards away.
It has been suggested by some people in Omagh that the car was deliberately left at the spot because the killers knew police would erect white tape to hold people back at that point during the evacuation.
But Mr Flanagan indicated that he did not accept that theory.
He said: "I have no doubt that the people who planted this must have intended murder. But to suggest they planted the device where white tape may have been placed is beyond the intelligence we have at the moment."
THE car used to transport the Omagh bomb was stolen in the Irish Republic last Thursday, RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan disclosed last night.
The maroon Vauxhall Cavalier disappeared in Carrickmacross,Co Monaghan, not far from the border, before being fitted with new Northern Ireland registration plates.
The disclosure came as Mr Flanagan and Garda Commissioner Pat Byrne, prepared to meet for talks as part of the huge investigation into the atrocity.
Police said the car was parked close to the bottom of Market Street in Omagh, close to the junction with Dublin Road - even though the terrorists claimed in a phone call that it had been abandoned at the top end of High Street near the town's courthouse, several hundred yards away.
It has been suggested by some people in Omagh that the car was deliberately left at the spot because the killers knew police would erect white tape to hold people back at that point during the evacuation.
But Mr Flanagan indicated that he did not accept that theory.
He said: "I have no doubt that the people who planted this must have intended murder. But to suggest they planted the device where white tape may have been placed is beyond the intelligence we have at the moment."
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0049
Published Date: 17-Aug-98
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