Bomb damaged traffic light

Traffic light damaged in the bombing of central Manchester by the Provisional IRA on 15 June 1996.

This traffic light was damaged when a 1,500-kilogram lorry bomb was detonated on Manchester's Corporation Street at 11.17am on 15 June 1996. The traffic light is believed to have been situated at the junction between Cross Street and Market Street, and was left standing after the blast.

The Provisional IRA sent a telephone warning to ITV’s Granada Studios around 90 minutes before detonation of the explosive device. Emergency services subsequently evacuated around 75,000 people from the city centre. Army bomb disposal experts were inspecting the lorry suspected to contain the bomb with a remote-controlled robot when it detonated. Over 200 people were injured in the bombing, but there were no fatalities.

The attack caused over £700 million worth of damage in part of the city's core retail and business district. Following the bombing, major regeneration efforts were focussed on this part of the city. When the Marks and Spencer store, which took some of the worst damage, was reopened after renovations, the ribbon was cut by four-year-old Sam Hughes, who had been injured in the bombing three years earlier, aged seven months old.