The Brixton Bomb: Voices united in outrage

HOME SECRETARY Jack Straw described the incident as "an outrageous and mindless act. Our sympathies go out to those injured and their families and to the family of the injured police officer."

THE RIGHT REVEREND Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, in whose diocese Brixton falls, said: "I am surprised and shocked at the news of a bomb explosion in a crowded shopping area where innocent lives are put at risk."

KATE HOEY, MP for Vauxhall, who is also a Home Office minister, said: "My sympathies go out to all those people hurt and injured. It is dreadful that people going about their normal Saturday afternoon shopping can be subjected to such a dreadful incident. The important thing now is to find who was responsible."

THE SHADOW Home Secretary, Sir Norman Fowler, said: "Our thoughts are with the people injured in this disgraceful attack. The police deserve praise for evacuating the area so quickly amid fears of a second device and I hope they are able swiftly to bring the perpetrators of this indefensible attack to justice."

THE LIBERAL Democrat home affairs spokesman, Alan Beith, said: "It is an act of supreme wickedness to plant a bomb in a busy shopping street on a Saturday afternoon. Our sympathies are with the injured and their families. It is grim news that fear of bombs should again be a feature of our busy shopping centres."

ANDREW SCOTT-BOLTON, 35, who lives just 25 yards from the site of the explosion on Electric Avenue, said: "The street must have been absolutely packed at the time. On a Saturday you can't find anywhere that's more heaving with people than Electric Avenue, with all the market stalls and the shops. I can't imagine what motive anyone could have to want to bomb Brixton."