EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS PAINT PICTURE OF HORROR
Eye witness accounts paint picture of horror
Young mother, Hilary McBride, from 52 Culmore Park was only 30 yards from the seat of the explosion when she was thrown through the air by the force of the blast.
She had gone into town shopping with her son Nathan (3) and her mother, Nora.
In the mayhem which followed, she lost touch with her family - for moments which seemed like an eternity.
"We had been in Watterson's when the first bomb scare came through and police sent us down the street. They kept telling us to move back, move back.
"I was standing outside the plate glass window at Nicholl and Shields shop when the bomb went off and was blown off my feet.
"Nathan was just a short distance away but I couldn't find him and began shouting and screaming.
"I was told that only for someone throwing themselves on top of the child, he would have been killed. I can't find the man to thank him."
Her mother, Noreen from 56 O'Kane Park, was with young Nathan when the "complete stranger" literally threw himself across the toddler.
"Only for that the child would have died. There was glass flying everywhere and people were just being cut down.
"A shop assistant was lying just across from us and her foot was missing. Another woman lay further up the street from us. I think she was dead" she added.
A former nurse who lived in the Gortin Road area of town ran to the scene to offer assistance.
Hours after the blast she sat numbed watching the injured being wheeled to helicopters en-route to other hospitals for specialist treatment.
"There was glass everywhere and people just lying there. It was pure devastation and carnage.
"There was a young policeman whose back was badly cut with glass and whose shirt had been torn off. He was tending to those more seriously injured.
"There were wee babies in pushchairs and other young children holding their mothers hands. Those are the sort of people caught up in this atrocity.
The woman scorned any suggestion the bomb may have been the result of a botched operation. And she bitterly condemned those responsible for the carnage.
"How could anybody justify planting a bomb to kill children.
"I don't understand how any human being could sit down and plan this" she added.
A young girl who worked in a dry cleaners further up the street described how she struggled to stem the flow of blood from victims' wounds.
"We got tea towels out in an effort to help people. We attended one woman who had blood pouring down her face.
"She told me she couldn't see through her eye. She opened her eye and there didn't appear to be anything there.
"We felt so helpless, we didn't know what to do" she added.
Another man who arrived at the scene moments after the explosion described the awful bloodbath.
"Limbs were lying everywhere amid bits of clothing, and there was glass and blood everywhere you looked.
"People were roaring, crying and screeching. What could you do to help?
"I took two young girls out to the hospital in my own car. I don't even know who the lassies were.
"There was just total confusion. A lot of people don't want to talk about it.
"If whoever planted the bomb could only see the devastation they have unleashed.
"Anyone who was there is going to have memories of the carnage all their lives" he added.
A worried father pacing the corridors of Tyrone County Hospital late on Saturday evening waited anxiously for news of his wife and nine-year-old son.
Both had been standing close to the car bomb and were buried beneath rubble.
"The wee fella just ran until a workman caught him down towards Campsie bridge and brought him back up to find his mother.
"He has an injury to his leg but at this stage we don't yet know the full extend of his injuries.
"Who would do that sort of thing."
A teenager who received serious eye injuries was comforted by friends as he sat on a wall just outside casualty.
The youth was still waiting on an ambulance to take him to the Erne Hospital for further treatment hours after the blast.
"I've never experienced anything as terrifying.
"My friends were also caught up in it and I still don't know if they are all right" he said.
Meanwhile other more serious cases were stretchered past him as they were wheeled to waiting helicopters.
An hour after the blast, a number of helicopters still circles the 'County' as they queued to ferry casualties to other hospitals throughout the North.
Over three hours after the blast, injured were still being admitted to the casualty department.
At Omagh Leisure Centre where some of less seriously injured were being treated a young local couple, recently engaged, told of their lucky escape in the bomb.
Badly shaken and shocked from the bomb hours earlier Clodagh Taggart and Colin Burns had been brought to the Leisure Centre to be examined.
They had been in Bogan's bar that afternoon when they were told that there was a bombscare at the Courthouse.
As they were about to leave they heard the explosion. Stepping out onto the street the air was grey and the scene was chaotic and behind them the bar front collapsed.
"Out in the street there were people running around on fire and I could counted six bodies lying just yards from each other.
"The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh and there was glass everywhere.
"I saw one man who had lost a leg and who was still holding on to two shopping bags, it was a horrible sight."
Young mother, Hilary McBride, from 52 Culmore Park was only 30 yards from the seat of the explosion when she was thrown through the air by the force of the blast.
She had gone into town shopping with her son Nathan (3) and her mother, Nora.
In the mayhem which followed, she lost touch with her family - for moments which seemed like an eternity.
"We had been in Watterson's when the first bomb scare came through and police sent us down the street. They kept telling us to move back, move back.
"I was standing outside the plate glass window at Nicholl and Shields shop when the bomb went off and was blown off my feet.
"Nathan was just a short distance away but I couldn't find him and began shouting and screaming.
"I was told that only for someone throwing themselves on top of the child, he would have been killed. I can't find the man to thank him."
Her mother, Noreen from 56 O'Kane Park, was with young Nathan when the "complete stranger" literally threw himself across the toddler.
"Only for that the child would have died. There was glass flying everywhere and people were just being cut down.
"A shop assistant was lying just across from us and her foot was missing. Another woman lay further up the street from us. I think she was dead" she added.
A former nurse who lived in the Gortin Road area of town ran to the scene to offer assistance.
Hours after the blast she sat numbed watching the injured being wheeled to helicopters en-route to other hospitals for specialist treatment.
"There was glass everywhere and people just lying there. It was pure devastation and carnage.
"There was a young policeman whose back was badly cut with glass and whose shirt had been torn off. He was tending to those more seriously injured.
"There were wee babies in pushchairs and other young children holding their mothers hands. Those are the sort of people caught up in this atrocity.
The woman scorned any suggestion the bomb may have been the result of a botched operation. And she bitterly condemned those responsible for the carnage.
"How could anybody justify planting a bomb to kill children.
"I don't understand how any human being could sit down and plan this" she added.
A young girl who worked in a dry cleaners further up the street described how she struggled to stem the flow of blood from victims' wounds.
"We got tea towels out in an effort to help people. We attended one woman who had blood pouring down her face.
"She told me she couldn't see through her eye. She opened her eye and there didn't appear to be anything there.
"We felt so helpless, we didn't know what to do" she added.
Another man who arrived at the scene moments after the explosion described the awful bloodbath.
"Limbs were lying everywhere amid bits of clothing, and there was glass and blood everywhere you looked.
"People were roaring, crying and screeching. What could you do to help?
"I took two young girls out to the hospital in my own car. I don't even know who the lassies were.
"There was just total confusion. A lot of people don't want to talk about it.
"If whoever planted the bomb could only see the devastation they have unleashed.
"Anyone who was there is going to have memories of the carnage all their lives" he added.
A worried father pacing the corridors of Tyrone County Hospital late on Saturday evening waited anxiously for news of his wife and nine-year-old son.
Both had been standing close to the car bomb and were buried beneath rubble.
"The wee fella just ran until a workman caught him down towards Campsie bridge and brought him back up to find his mother.
"He has an injury to his leg but at this stage we don't yet know the full extend of his injuries.
"Who would do that sort of thing."
A teenager who received serious eye injuries was comforted by friends as he sat on a wall just outside casualty.
The youth was still waiting on an ambulance to take him to the Erne Hospital for further treatment hours after the blast.
"I've never experienced anything as terrifying.
"My friends were also caught up in it and I still don't know if they are all right" he said.
Meanwhile other more serious cases were stretchered past him as they were wheeled to waiting helicopters.
An hour after the blast, a number of helicopters still circles the 'County' as they queued to ferry casualties to other hospitals throughout the North.
Over three hours after the blast, injured were still being admitted to the casualty department.
At Omagh Leisure Centre where some of less seriously injured were being treated a young local couple, recently engaged, told of their lucky escape in the bomb.
Badly shaken and shocked from the bomb hours earlier Clodagh Taggart and Colin Burns had been brought to the Leisure Centre to be examined.
They had been in Bogan's bar that afternoon when they were told that there was a bombscare at the Courthouse.
As they were about to leave they heard the explosion. Stepping out onto the street the air was grey and the scene was chaotic and behind them the bar front collapsed.
"Out in the street there were people running around on fire and I could counted six bodies lying just yards from each other.
"The air was filled with the smell of burning flesh and there was glass everywhere.
"I saw one man who had lost a leg and who was still holding on to two shopping bags, it was a horrible sight."
Further Information
Publisher: ULSTER HERALD
Ref: UH/0008
Published Date: 20-Aug-98
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