Anti-terrorist police have begun a detailed search of a north London post office damaged in an Easter bomb attack blamed on the dissident republican group the "Real IRA".
No one was hurt in the blast, which ripped through the vacant Edgware postal sorting office in Hendon late last night, but London police said the area would remain cordoned off while investigators sifted through debris.
"We hope to recover as many fragments of the device as possible," said Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alan Fry, head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch.
A spokeswoman for the Scotland Yard London police headquarters said a "fingertip search" of the bomb site began at daybreak today.
The bomb, described by police as a "high explosive device" went off in the Edgware postal sorting office just before 11.30 p.m. last night, blowing out windows.
One eyewitnesses described hearing a "very loud noise" and seeing smoke billowing from the building.
The attack came two days after the "Real IRA" issued a statement vowing to keep up its struggle to end British rule in the North.Scotland Yard said that although no coded warning had been received before yesterday's attack, it was probably carried out by the dissident group.