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On This Day: IRA launch mortar attack on Downing Street
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out the attack from a van in London's Whitehall, but two shells overshot Downing Street and failed to explode.
February 7 1991 saw the IRA launch a mortar bomb attack on 10 Downing Street in an assassination attempt on John Major.
The Provisional Irish Republican Army carried out the attack from a van in London's Whitehall, but two shells overshot Downing Street and failed to explode. Noone was injured.
The group had attempted to assassinate then Prime Minister John Major, who was meeting his War Cabinet to discuss the Gulf War.
They had originally planned to target Major's predecessor Margaret Thatcher.
No one in the Cabinet was hurt, although four people received minor injuries, including two police.
