The Five Demands

Ancora in corso le perizie degli ingegneri nell’area tutt’ora transennata

Potrebbero essere demoliti gli edifici gravemente danneggiati dall’esplosione del taxi-bomba imbottito di 200 libre di esplosivo, avvenuta nelle prime ore di martedì 4 agosto.
Decisamente meno ingenti appaiono i danni alla stazione della PSNI di Strand Road, reale obiettivo dell’attentato rivendicato dal gruppo repubblicano Oglaigh na hEireann.
Logfi Jalloul, gestore di un kebab nell’area colpita, si considera un ‘miracolato’. E’ stato evacuato dal suo negozio solo 2 minuti prima della deflagrazione avvenuta con circa 20 minuti di anticipo rispetto a quanto preventivato dalla telefonata di avvertimento giunta quella notte alla polizia.
“Tutto il negozio è distrutto” ha commentato Jalloul al suo primo sopralluogo della proprietà dopo l’esplosione.
“Non riesco nemmeno a trovare nemmeno una parola per descrivere quello che è successo quì. Per essere onesti, non so cosa farò. Non è rimasto nulla”.
Difficile quantificare il danno economico che subiranno le attività economiche della zona, a causa del dilungarsi delle perizie al fine di definire la messa in sicurezza degli edifici pericolanti.
Jim Roddy, Derry City Centre Manager, Jim Roddy, ha dichiarato ai microfoni di U TV che l’impatto commerciale dell’attentato sarà “massiccio”.
“I negozi sono distrutti e le imprese non sarà operativo per un bel po ‘di tempo”, ha sottolineato.
“La strada non sarà aperta di nuovo, immagino, fino a quando gli ingegneri non si saranno sincerati che tutto venga messo in sicurezza. Poi si dovrà guardare la stabilità degli edifici stessi”.
“Dio sa quanto gli affari dei negozianti hanno perso”.
L’area di Strand Road interessata dall’esplosione resta transennata e le indagini proseguon a spron battuto.

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Shopkeepers return to blast scene (U TV)
The buildings worst hit by the explosion of a 200lb proxy bomb, which targeted Strand Road police station in Londonderry, may have to be demolished.
On Thursday, shop owners returned for the first time to the scene of the blast, which ripped apart several premises opposite Strand road police station, to survey the extent of the damage.
In the wake of the explosion, a local business man told UTV he and his staff were lucky to be alive.
Logfi Jalloul, who owns a kebab shop near the police station, was evacuated only a couple of minutes before the explosion.
“All the shop is gone”, Mr Jalloul said on Thursday, assessing the wreckage.
“I can’t even find a word to describe what’s happened here. To be honest, I don’t know what I will do. There’s nothing left”.
A taxi driver hijacked at gunpoint was forced to deliver the bomb to Strand Road in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The PSNI had received a telephone warning by a group claiming to be from Óglaigh na hÉireann, a dissident republican organisation, that the device would explode in 45 minutes but it went off just 23 minutes later.
“I know I’m not the target but I’m in the way. They didn’t realise that”, Mr Jalloul told UTV.
“A matter of two-three minutes and I would have been gone.”
The area remains cordoned off, while the full extent of the damage caused to the buildings is being assessed by engineers.
Derry City Centre Manager, Jim Roddy, told UTV the commercial impact of the attack on the city will be “massive”.
“Shops are wrecked and businesses won’t be operating for quite some time,” Mr Roddy said.
“The road will not be open again, I imagine, until the engineers are happy that everything is secure. Then they’ll have to look at the stability of the buildings themselves”.
“God Knows how much business the shopkeepers have lost.”
“It will have a massive knock-on effect on the wider city itself.”
Strand Road Police Station has been relatively unscathed by the blast, with only damage visible to the main gates.
“It’s reckless, completely reckless. We’re very lucky that no-one was killed on that night,” PSNI Area Commander Chris Yates told UTV.
“Investigation is progressing. There’s been a meticulous forensic analysis done of the street”.
Police have appealed for anyone who saw a silver Mazda car between the Bogside and Strand Road Police Station in the early hours of Tuesday morning, from 2.30am onwards, to come forward.