WARRINGTON BOMB VICTIMSOn 20 March, 1993,two boys were killed in an IRA attack on a busy high street in Warrington.
Three-year-old Johnathan Ball and twelve-year-old Tim Parry were killed following the detonation of two bombs in Bridge Street.
Fifty six other people were injured by the bombs which had been placed in cast iron bins outside shops to create large amounts of shrapnel. The street was bustling with people buying gifts for Mothering Sunday the following day.
The first bomb exploded at 12.12pm and eye witness reports said that fleeing shoppers were driven into the path of the second which went off a few moments later.
Fourteen minutes earlier The Samaritans had received a coded telephone message giving false warning about a bomb in nearby Liverpool.
Merseyside Police alerted their Cheshire counterparts to the message but there was no time to evacuate. Cheshire Constabulary was already on high alert after three devices had caused severe damage but no deaths at a gasworks the previous month.
A police officer was shot and injured apprehending three suspects following the 26 February attack. These men were subsequently arrested and jailed.
After the Bridge Street blasts, paramedics were rushed to the scene while buses ferried injured people to hospitals. Four people were seriously injured but survived.
Johnathan Ball had been in the town with his babysitter buying a Mother's Day card. He died at the scene.
Everton supporter Tim Parry was buying football shorts when he caught the full blast of the explosion. He died five days later at Liverpool’s Walton Hospital.
The public were outraged and Cheshire police launched their biggest ever investigation, but the bombers were never caught.
The Tim Parry Johnathan Ball Foundation for Peace was launched by the children’s parents after the tragedy and on the seventh anniversary of their death a community youth centre was opened in Bridge Street.
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