THE RUC OFFICERS WHO FACED THE UNTHINKABLE
The RUC officers who faced the unthinkable
Routine day transformed into worst nightmare
By JEANETTE OLDHAM
IT WAS just another ordinary Saturday with nothing much happening around lunch-time for a handful of detectives and constables on duty at Omagh police station.
Almost incomprehensibly, somewhere nearby, a number of men were getting ready to commit an atrocity which would thrust this sleepy station into a nightmare ordeal that none of its officers will ever forget.
And yesterday - from the outside at least - the station seemed to have returned to business as usual; two policemen manned the entry through which police cars periodically came and went.
But inside was a very different workforce - one whose job took it to hell and back in the time it took for local people to die and be buried on their patch.
But the constable whose response vehicle was first on the scene after the bomb warning freely admits he has not come back from that hell.
The 38-year-old, who asked not to be named, looked a million miles away as he sat in the station wringing his hands.
He was about to recount the kind of experience every policeman in Northern Ireland dreads but never believes will happen to him.
"I was in the first response vehicle tasked to clear the area by the courthouse where we thought the bomb was.
"A code word came so we knew it was serious. I ran up the hill to the courthouse shouting at people to leave.
"They were very good. Women with children just got into their cars and left, not asking anything.
"But there were still plenty of people about and there was still traffic coming down the road at the top of the hill.
"I realised we didn't have enough resources so I radioed for assistance.
"A second vehicle came and we sealed off the area with a man here and a man there.
"It was 2.46pm. We had cleared the area but we thought the public were still not far enough away.
"We thought there was a lady still in one of the flats above the shops.
"But we had to take the chance that she would get out because we had to try and find the bomb.
"We started checking registration numbers of cars on the street...", his voice trails off and he takes his first breath.
"Then there was this massive bang. I didn't even have the sense to lie down.
"I looked back and never in my life have I seen anything like it.
"Women and children were screaming and blood was pouring out of everywhere on their bodies.
"There were three young girls, two of them were helping to carry the other. She had a really bad leg injury.
"I had to break the window of the police car to get at the first aid kit.
"I saw a man and called him over and asked him to press his hand on her bleeding leg and hold it there until help came.
"We got bottles of water and poured it over people to try and cool their burning.
"I went back to the girl with the bleeding leg and she was as white as white could be.
"It was bedlam everywhere, just unbelievable. We had to put people in vehicles, we had to find somebody who could drive a Land Rover to take injured people to hospital.
"I'll never forget the faces of people leaning against the windows in the Ulsterbus, they were holding their heads and they were bleeding."
This brave policeman went about his desperately dangerous job without a thought for his own safety.
But all the time the paralysing fear that he might come across his own wife - whom he thought was in the town - leapt into his mind.
It was more than an hour before a colleague told him his wife was safe at home.
At the hospital he and other officers were assigned the task of taking the dead to the temporary morgue at Lisanally Army camp.
"We each had to stay with three bodies until they were taken to the morgue. I have to say that we made sure they were treated with the utmost respect."
Late the same night, the leaden-faced officer walked through his front door and hugged his family-
Asked how he feels now, he answers in an instant with more emotion in his voice than words can properly convey.
"I can't settle. I will never forget the sound of those people crying and screaming."
Another of his colleagues, a 25-year-old local man with just two-and-a-half years' experience in the force, was in the second police car to arrive at the scene.
Once he realised the extent of people's injuries, he ran to a chemist to get bandages. But it was closed.
With the screams of the injured in his ears, he tore into another chemist and grabbed as many nappies as he could.
"We had to just hand them out to people and move on to try and help other people," he said.
Routine day transformed into worst nightmare
By JEANETTE OLDHAM
IT WAS just another ordinary Saturday with nothing much happening around lunch-time for a handful of detectives and constables on duty at Omagh police station.
Almost incomprehensibly, somewhere nearby, a number of men were getting ready to commit an atrocity which would thrust this sleepy station into a nightmare ordeal that none of its officers will ever forget.
And yesterday - from the outside at least - the station seemed to have returned to business as usual; two policemen manned the entry through which police cars periodically came and went.
But inside was a very different workforce - one whose job took it to hell and back in the time it took for local people to die and be buried on their patch.
But the constable whose response vehicle was first on the scene after the bomb warning freely admits he has not come back from that hell.
The 38-year-old, who asked not to be named, looked a million miles away as he sat in the station wringing his hands.
He was about to recount the kind of experience every policeman in Northern Ireland dreads but never believes will happen to him.
"I was in the first response vehicle tasked to clear the area by the courthouse where we thought the bomb was.
"A code word came so we knew it was serious. I ran up the hill to the courthouse shouting at people to leave.
"They were very good. Women with children just got into their cars and left, not asking anything.
"But there were still plenty of people about and there was still traffic coming down the road at the top of the hill.
"I realised we didn't have enough resources so I radioed for assistance.
"A second vehicle came and we sealed off the area with a man here and a man there.
"It was 2.46pm. We had cleared the area but we thought the public were still not far enough away.
"We thought there was a lady still in one of the flats above the shops.
"But we had to take the chance that she would get out because we had to try and find the bomb.
"We started checking registration numbers of cars on the street...", his voice trails off and he takes his first breath.
"Then there was this massive bang. I didn't even have the sense to lie down.
"I looked back and never in my life have I seen anything like it.
"Women and children were screaming and blood was pouring out of everywhere on their bodies.
"There were three young girls, two of them were helping to carry the other. She had a really bad leg injury.
"I had to break the window of the police car to get at the first aid kit.
"I saw a man and called him over and asked him to press his hand on her bleeding leg and hold it there until help came.
"We got bottles of water and poured it over people to try and cool their burning.
"I went back to the girl with the bleeding leg and she was as white as white could be.
"It was bedlam everywhere, just unbelievable. We had to put people in vehicles, we had to find somebody who could drive a Land Rover to take injured people to hospital.
"I'll never forget the faces of people leaning against the windows in the Ulsterbus, they were holding their heads and they were bleeding."
This brave policeman went about his desperately dangerous job without a thought for his own safety.
But all the time the paralysing fear that he might come across his own wife - whom he thought was in the town - leapt into his mind.
It was more than an hour before a colleague told him his wife was safe at home.
At the hospital he and other officers were assigned the task of taking the dead to the temporary morgue at Lisanally Army camp.
"We each had to stay with three bodies until they were taken to the morgue. I have to say that we made sure they were treated with the utmost respect."
Late the same night, the leaden-faced officer walked through his front door and hugged his family-
Asked how he feels now, he answers in an instant with more emotion in his voice than words can properly convey.
"I can't settle. I will never forget the sound of those people crying and screaming."
Another of his colleagues, a 25-year-old local man with just two-and-a-half years' experience in the force, was in the second police car to arrive at the scene.
Once he realised the extent of people's injuries, he ran to a chemist to get bandages. But it was closed.
With the screams of the injured in his ears, he tore into another chemist and grabbed as many nappies as he could.
"We had to just hand them out to people and move on to try and help other people," he said.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/087
Published Date: 22-Aug-98
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