FIVE IRA suspects were still being questioned by anti terrorist detectives last night, as the parents of the man shot dead during Monday's security operation travelled to London to identify his body formally.
The independent Police Complaints Authority is supervising the inquiry into the shooting of Mr Diarmuid O'Neill (25), who died at Charing Cross Hospital after the early morning raid in Hammersmith, west London.
The raids in London and Sussex yielded more than 10 tonnes of home made explosives and murder kit, foiling what the security authorities believe was an intended pre-election campaign in Britain.
It is understood that retired couple, Mr Eoghan O'Neill and his wife, Teresa (Terry), travelled from their home in Timoleague, Co Cork, yesterday. A Scotland Yard spokesman refused to say where the body was being held. An inquest is due to open at Fulham Magistrates court at 9.30 a.m. today. It will adjourn after evidence of identification.
As extensive forensic examinations continued yesterday, the police also refused to identify the five IRA suspects being held at Paddington Green high security station or to indicate how they would be held before a charges might be preferred.
One of the men is to be a recently qualified Airways engineer who was arrested after ending a shift at Gatwick Airport. It is understood he comes originally from Lisburn, Co Antrim. Forensic scientists yesterday made an inch by inch search of the house in which he lived in Crawley, West Sussex, four miles from Gatwick Airport.
It is believed Mr and Mrs O'Neill lived in London until their retirement two years ago. Diarmuid and his brother, Shane, attended London's Catholic Brompton Oratory School.
Headmaster, Mr John Mackintosh, said last night Diarmuid was well behaved, he got on well with anybody. He just got on with his work".
Diarmuid reportedly left the school in 1986.
. The Sinn Fein vice president, Mr Pat Doherty, criticised the British police last night for feeding "disinformation" to the media. He accused the police of attempting to cover up their "deliberate shooting" of Diarmuid O'Neill.
"The admission this evening that no exchange of fire took place is in direct contradiction to the stories fed to a gullible press over the past 36 hours," he said.