Rocket Launcher Part Found Near MI6 HQ in London

L O N D O N, Sept. 21 -- British Police today found part of arocket-propelled grenade launcher near the scene of an attack on the headquarters of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, which they believe may have been the work of IRA dissidents.

No one was injured and damage was limited to one window and two wall panels on the eighth floor of the towering cream and green headquarters of Britain’s famous spy agency.

The building, on the banks of the River Thames opposite the Tate Art Gallery, is one of London’s best known buildings.

It was even featured in the latest James Bond movie, The World Is Not Enough — where it was shown being blown up by a terrorist bomb.

There was no prior warning and no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, but police today said the attackers may have used a type of rocket launcher readily available to the Irish Republican Army and the hard-line splinter groups that have rejected the cease-fire in Northern Ireland.

Security analysts said it fit a pattern of rising violence by the so-called real IRA faction. “There has been concern over the growing dissident threat,” a British security source said in Northern Ireland.

Rocket Launchers Used by IRA

Scotland Yard today said the rocket launcher part was found in a park in Vauxhall Cross, near the MI6 building. A Metropolitan police spokeswoman said it was not known if the launcher had been fired from the spot where it was found.

“This afternoon, while carrying out a detailed search of the Spring Gardens area of Vauxhall Cross, Metropolitan Police Service officers recovered part of a rocket propelled grenade launcher,” the spokeswoman said.

Rocket launchers have been found in republican arms caches in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic and may have been used in attacks in Britain, said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard’s anti-terrorist branch. Such devices, he added, are freely available from Russia and the former Yugoslavia.