ARCHIVED images showing the devastation caused by the 1996 IRA bomb in Manchester have been released for the first time on the 18th anniversary of the attack.
The haunting shots, which show the aftermath of the Arndale blast, were captured by Greater Manchester Fire Service officers on the scene that day.
They show groups of emergency workers sifting through the rubble left in its wake.
The images have been held in the Salford headquarters of Manchester’s fire service for years, but were released online on Sunday, June 15 – to mark the 18th anniversary of the bombing.
They show the shocking extent of the destruction caused by the bomb, which devastated the city centre and showered shoppers with masonry and glass.
The 3,3000lb device was the largest bomb to explode on mainland Britain, although miraculously, no one was killed in the attack.
However, 212 people were injured by falling debris after the explosive – which was hidden in a lorry parked outside the Arndale shopping centre – detonated at 11.20am on June 15, 1996.
It went off nearly two hours after Granada TV studios received a call claiming that there was a bomb at the corner of Corporation Street and Cannon Street.
The caller relayed an IRA codeword so police would know the threat was genuine.
Special officers were drafted in to carry out a mammoth evacuation of up to 80,000 shoppers and workers in Manchester.
By 11.10am, ten minutes before the bomb detonated, a cordon had been established about a quarter of a mile from the bomb.
No-one has ever been prosecuted for the attack.
