Rocket Launcher Part Found Near MI6 HQ in London
L O N D O N, Sept. 21, 2000 -- 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.
The IRA has observed a cease-fire since 1997, but dissidents within the ranks are believed to be responsible for a number of explosions in Northern Ireland and England in recent months.
In July, police safely detonated a bomb that had been planted on railway tracks in west London. Government officials said they believed Irish paramilitaries were responsible.
In June, a small bomb exploded on London’s Hammersmith Bridge, an IRA target in past years. No one claimed responsibility but police suspected Irish dissidents.
Police are keeping an open mind, but “clearly the sort of weapon we believe was used in this attack is known to be in the hands of certain groups,” Fry said. “They will be uppermost in our minds.”
Witnesses Heard Two Blasts
Police said attackers struck around 9:45 p.m. local time Wednesday, hitting the exterior of the eighth floor of MI6 headquarters, near the top of the building.
Some witnesses reported hearing two explosions, large enough to send up a plume of white smoke and to rattle buildings across a railway.
“We just heard two God-almighty bangs, a loud one first, and then another one,” said Theresa Harding, 68, who lives nearby. “We honestly thought it was fireworks.”
Another witness, Andrew Preece, told BBC News 24 he was driving home when he saw a flash of light coming from the top of the MI6 building.
“It looked as of it was internal from the center of the building, but the flash of light was from the top of the building,” he said. “It was followed by a large bang and the ground seemed to shake and my car was shaking.”
The blast brought firefighters, police and ambulances to the site on the south bank of the Thames, but Fry said business went on as usual inside the building throughout the night.
Police sealed off roads around the area, and early train service to and from nearby Waterloo station, including the Eurostar service to Paris and Brussels, were also canceled today, causing delays for thousands of commuters. Rail operators said at lunchtime that services were gradually being reinstated.
What Is MI6?
Military Intelligence Section 6 was formed in 1921 to send British agents abroad to spy on other countries. Since the end of the Cold War, however, MI6 has been redefining its role. It is thought to cooperate closely with MI5 in keeping track of Irish terror groups.
The Intelligence Services Act, introduced in 1994, has sought to reveal more information about Britain’s spy services.
The act revealed that MI6 has a budget of around $212 million, and defines its role as: “(A) to obtain information relating to the actions or intentions of persons outside the British Islands; and (B) to perform other tasks relating to the actions or intentions of such persons … [in relation to] the interests of national security.”
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office has been tightening security procedures after reported lapses.
In March, a laptop computer that contained missing training information for one of Britain’s spy agencies was mislaid and recovered by police two weeks later. News reports suggested an MI6 agent left the laptop in a taxi after spending a night drinking at a bar near the agency’s headquarters.
A week earlier, another laptop was stolen from an officer of the domestic security service MI5 at London’s Paddington Station.
ABCNEWS.com’s Lucrezia Cuen in London, ABCNEWS’ London bureau, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.