Carlton Tower & Portman Hotel shootings

Carlton Tower & Portman Hotel Shootings
Part of The Troubles
The Jumeirah Carlton Tower, previously just the Carlton Tower hotel which the IRA fired shots at
Location Portman Square, London & Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge, London, England
Date 19 January 1975
Attack type
 shooting
Weapons Sten & M1 carbine
Deaths 0
Non-fatal injuries
 12
Perpetrators Provisional IRA
Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang

On the 19 January 1975 the Provisional IRA's Balcombe Street Gang carried out two separate gun attacks on hotels in London, England. It was the first attack of 1975 carried out by IRA unit who had been responsible for the Woolwich pub bombing & Guildford pub bombings which resulted in the deaths of seven people (5 off-duty British soldiers & 2 civilians) just a few months earlier. In total 12 people were injured from both attacks.[1]

The first attack was carried out on the Portman Hotel in Portman Square, the IRA team headed by Eddie Butler drove slowley by the hotel and fired a number of shots into it using a Sten Submachine gun. Two hours later another IRA team drove by the Carlton Tower Hotel located along Cadogan Place, Knightsbridge and fired shots into it this time with an M1 carbine. Four people were injured in this attack mainly from flying glass.

At first people believed the attacks might have been motivated by anti‐Semitism as both hotels were owned by Jewish businessmen. But police believed it to be the work of the Provisional IRA who carried out a similar shooting attack a month earlier in December 1974 against the Churchill Hotel also in Portman Square in which three people were injured. [2][3]

A STEN gun lke the one used to shoot at the Portman Hotel by the IRA, in January 1975

Aftermath

The IRA continued carrying out attacks in England for the month of January 1975. On the 23 a time bomb at the Woodford Waterworks pumping station in North London exploded, causing three injuries. Then on the 27 January two of seven times planted by the Balcombe street gang exploded in Kensington High Street and Victoria street injuring a total of six people.[4] A bomb exploded in Manchester in which over 20 people were injured. [5]

Video footage after the shooting

  • "Provisional IRA Machine Gun Attack on Carlton Tower Hotel, London 19 January 1975 - YouTube". youtube.com.


See Also

Sources


References

  1. ↑ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch75.htm#19175 CAIN:Sunday 19 January 1975 The Irish Republican Army (IRA) carried out two gun attacks on hotels in London. Shots were fired into the Carlton Tower Hotel and the Portman Hotel. Twelve people were injured in the attacks.
  2. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/20/archives/2-london-hotels-are-hit-by-shots-machinegun-fire-causes-injury-to-7.html 2 LONDON HOTELS ARE HIT BY SHOTS
  3. ↑ http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch74.htm#141274 CAIN:Saturday 14 December 1974 The IRA carried out a gun attack on the Churchill Hotel in Portman Square, London. Three people were slightly injured by flying glass.
  4. ↑ https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/written-answers/1993/mar/04/prevention-of-terrorism-legislation
  5. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/1975/01/28/archives/6-bombs-go-off-in-england-after-ira-talks-19-are-hurt-in-a.html 6 Bombs Go Off in England After I.R.A. Talks
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