The blue Ford Transit van used in yesterday's bomb attack yesterday in Markethill, Co Armagh, was stolen 12 days ago in Dundalk, it emerged last night. No injuries were caused in the explosion, although the local Protestant primary school, a short distance from the seat of the explosion near the RUC station, was evacuated.
The explosion caused widespread damage to property but almost none to the RUC station, which is protected by a blast-resistant wall, installed after an IRA bomb wrecked the original station in August 1991.
A number of telephone calls were made around 40 minutes before the explosion giving details of the location of the bomb.
The local senior RUC officer, Chief Insp Eddie Graham, said that despite the warning it had been difficult to clear the area because it was mart day and the village was very busy. "Anyone who knows Markethill knows it is very, very busy today. It is the busiest day of the week. Certainly if the police had not been on the scene as quickly as they were, people would have been injured."
A succession of senior political and security figures visited the village. The Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, led a delegation of party members and spoke to assembled media in the main street.
He said he believed the Provisional IRA was responsible and announced that he was seeking Sinn Fein's expulsion from the Stormont talks. He also said he would not consider joining the talks with Sinn Fein until forensic tests had shown the origins of the bomb.
The Northern Ireland Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, spoke briefly to reporters, saying there was no indication who had carried out the attack.
The RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, said the attack had been "professional" and the bombers had shown total disregard for the safety of the people in Markethill.
The bomb exploded in a small square in front of the police station, which was filled with vehicles owned by farmers attending the mart.
The bomb scattered cars and trailers around the square. It wrecked a three-storey stone building and tore the corrugated iron roof of the mart.
A small number of cattle caught in the blast had to be destroyed, but most of the 300 or so animals escaped injury and remained remarkably quiet during the afternoon as clearing up went on around them.
Parts of the van bomb were thrown hundreds of yards, one piece travelling right through the former Markethill train station which has been converted into a private residence and is about 100 yards from the explosion. Windows were smashed and roof slates loosened in several houses in Green Park housing estate, 200 yards from the blast site.
The Markethill primary school, only 50 yards from the bomb, was badly damaged. The school was previously damaged in the 1991 IRA bomb attack on the RUC station and again when mortars were fired at the station. The children were alerted by the sounding of the fire alarm which some took to be an exercise until RUC officers arrived and helped teachers clear the building. The last children were clear of the building less than 10 minutes before the bomb exploded, according to local people.
Republican bombers have attacked Markethill, a predominantly Protestant village close to the strongly republican areas of south Armagh and north Monaghan, at least six times. In the last attack in 1993, the local hotel was destroyed.