Deserted street stalls, smashed windows and broken glass and nail fragments littered the pavement on Electric Avenue, in Brixton, south London, yesterday as the scene of Saturday's bomb explosion outside an Iceland supermarket was searched for evidence by police forensic experts.
Scotland Yard detectives played down any possible link with dissident terrorist groups in Northern Ireland and the IRA, instead working on number of theories including a racial motive, feuding Jamaican Yardie gangs or a lone bomber. Meanwhile, 14 people of the 39 injured at the scene by glass fragments and nails packed around the device were still receiving treatment in hospitals across London last night.
They include a 23-month old baby boy who underwent a successful operation at Great Ormond Street hospital to remove a four-inch nail embedded in his skull. Two other people, injured by flying glass, may lose their sight.
Mr Wayne Pegus (55) was buying groceries from a stall outside the supermarket when he was blown off his feet by the explosion: "I was just standing, talking to a friend, and all of a sudden I heard this great bang and I looked at my hand and my finger had disappeared."
The explosion happened at 5.26 p.m. on Saturday afternoon when the area was busy with shoppers and traders. Eyewitnesses have spoken of how a young blond man wearing a red jacket left a blue hold-all containing the device outside the Iceland store at about 5 p.m. No warning was given. It seems that only a call to the police at 5.20 p.m. by a member of the public who spotted the suspicious bag prevented the numbers of injured becoming a list of the dead.
The Home Secretary, Mr Jack Straw, described the bombing as "an outrageous and mindless act". There was no evidence, at present, to link the blast with a racist group or any group linked to the conflict in the Balkans.
The people of Brixton, which is a large south London suburb with an enticing mix of ethnic communities and a vibrant collection of trendy restaurants and clubs, had many more questions than answers yesterday as they tried to understand what had happened.
One black rights campaigner said the bomb was a clear attack on the black community in the wake of the Stephen Lawrence case.