DAY OF HORROR TOWN WILL NEVER FORGET
Day of horror town will never forget
In the single worst atrocity in 30 years of troubles, 29 civilians -Catholic, Protestant, young, old - were slaughtered as they shopped in Omagh. At about 2.30pm, two telephone bomb warnings were made to the newsroom of UTV in Belfast and the Samaritans in Coleraine.
At 3.10pm on August 15, 1998, the device exploded. The car disintegrated, hurling shrapnel, glass and masonry from shattered buildings, scything through the crowd.
Bodies were stacked up between clothes racks in shops and more of the dead could be seen in a waterlogged crater where the bomb had been. A baby, still strapped in her pushchair, sat screaming, shrapnel embedded in her head, while two teenage Oxfam volunteers were dead inside their charity shop.
A woman 34 weeks pregnant lay dead on the floor, her unborn twins slowly losing their lives. Her 18-month-old baby was dead beneath her and lying in the doorway of the shop, her mother of 65, was lifeless.
Ambulances raced to the scene, but many of the injured were piled into buses and cars and driven to Tyrone County Hospital, where 240 casualties arrived within 45 minutes of the explosion.
The consultant in charge of the hospital on the day, Dr Dominic Pinto, described the incident as "a major disaster of battlefield proportions". Condemnation of the attack was universal. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams broke his "no-condemnation" rule, expressing his total horror.
Many dissident republicans still regard Omagh as a disaster, both in terms of the loss of life and the loss of support for their cause, but it did not stop the group launching a series of attacks on the UK.
In the single worst atrocity in 30 years of troubles, 29 civilians -Catholic, Protestant, young, old - were slaughtered as they shopped in Omagh. At about 2.30pm, two telephone bomb warnings were made to the newsroom of UTV in Belfast and the Samaritans in Coleraine.
At 3.10pm on August 15, 1998, the device exploded. The car disintegrated, hurling shrapnel, glass and masonry from shattered buildings, scything through the crowd.
Bodies were stacked up between clothes racks in shops and more of the dead could be seen in a waterlogged crater where the bomb had been. A baby, still strapped in her pushchair, sat screaming, shrapnel embedded in her head, while two teenage Oxfam volunteers were dead inside their charity shop.
A woman 34 weeks pregnant lay dead on the floor, her unborn twins slowly losing their lives. Her 18-month-old baby was dead beneath her and lying in the doorway of the shop, her mother of 65, was lifeless.
Ambulances raced to the scene, but many of the injured were piled into buses and cars and driven to Tyrone County Hospital, where 240 casualties arrived within 45 minutes of the explosion.
The consultant in charge of the hospital on the day, Dr Dominic Pinto, described the incident as "a major disaster of battlefield proportions". Condemnation of the attack was universal. Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams broke his "no-condemnation" rule, expressing his total horror.
Many dissident republicans still regard Omagh as a disaster, both in terms of the loss of life and the loss of support for their cause, but it did not stop the group launching a series of attacks on the UK.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/413
Published Date: 23-Jan-02
Related Images
There have been no images archived for this article.