Service remembers Deal bomb dead

Many of those killed and injured were teenagers

A memorial service has been held on the 14th anniversary of an IRA bomb which killed 11 Royal Marines musicians.

The attack on the Royal Marines' School of Music in Deal, Kent, in 1989 also left more than 20 other bandsmen injured.

A memorial service has been held at the site of the explosion each year since, but this year's event was given added poignancy after a fire earlier this year.

The fire in May destroyed much of the concert hall, where the bomb went off, and damaged the memorial garden built in memory of the victims of the bomb.

Last Post

The 15lb bomb exploded on the morning of 22 September 1989, while the musicians were practising in the concert hall in Canada Road.

Rescuers and other marines from the music school attempted to clear away the rubble of the building with their bare hands in the search for survivors before heavy lifting equipment arrived.

The concert hall building was destroyed by fire in May this year

Kent ambulance workers, who were on strike at the time, voluntarily abandoned their industrial action to ferry the casualties to hospitals in Deal and Canterbury.

The bomb exploded at 0822 BST and the annual service always features a minute's silence at exactly that time followed by the playing of the Last Post by a Royal Marines bugler.

The Royal Marines School of Music was moved from Deal in the 1990s with some of the barracks buildings made into flats.

The concert hall building, formerly a church, stood empty until the fire on 19 May tore through the building, leaving just the four walls standing, without the roof.

The building has listed status but was so badly damaged it may have to be demolished.

Relatives of those killed by the 1989 bomb have said they would fight to keep the memorial garden there if the site of the concert hall was used for development.