Letter bomb linked to Scots anger over water

(First Edition)

A LETTER BOMB which exploded yesterday at a water company headquarters could have been a protest against plans to privatise Scottish water services, police said.

The bomb was inside a small Jiffy bag, which had a Scottish postmark and the address stencilled on to the front. It went off in the hands of a woman in the post room of Anglian Water in John Major's constituency town of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, yesterday morning. No injuries or damage were caused.

A second suspect package was discovered but was found to be harmless. The attack was condemned by the Scottish National Party, which denied responsibility.

Cambridgeshire police said they thought the explosion might be linked to a letter bomb delivered to the water department of the Scottish Office in Edinburgh on Monday which did not go off.

They also considered there might be links with an incident last Friday during which eight SNP members barricaded themselves inside Anglian Water's headquarters to protest against any Scottish sell-off.

Police were last night investigating a letter bomb sent to the Dounreay nuclear plant in the north of Scotland. About 50 staff were evacuated after the device was found during a routine inspection of mail. It was made safe by a bomb disposal squad.