Terrorists bombs exploded on two continents at the weekend - one aimed at the Thai Prime Minister and the other a top news organisation.
Police in London believe that an Irish guerrilla group, the Real IRA, planted a large bomb which exploded outside the BBC television news headquarters on Saturday, hurling debris hundreds of metres.
In Bangkok a bomb, placed under airline seats reserved for Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his son yesterday, killed a cabin crew member and tore open the Thai Airways Boeing 737-400, starting a fire which gutted the aircraft.
Suspicion immediately centred on drug lords from neighbouring Burma who control the lucrative heroin trade through northern Thailand, and whom Mr Thaksin has pledged to eliminate.
London police, already on high alert for Real IRA attacks, said the BBC bomb was the biggest on the mainland since an attack on London's Hammersmith Bridge last June.
The bomb, hidden in a London black cab outside the Shepherds Bush news headquarters, exploded as bomb squad officers were attempting a controlled explosion yesterday afternoon.
"There was a huge orange fireball and a pall of smoke which even in the night sky was visible," said cameraman Jon Brotherton.
The head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch, Alan Fry, said the attack was an escalation of the Real IRA's campaign, and he feared further attacks.
"We have been predicting since Christmas that the mainland, and London in particular, were to be subject to terrorist attacks."
Nearby residents reported an "enormous explosion."
Robert Fulton felt the blast in his home a quarter of a mile from the BBC's glass-fronted building.
"The sky was lit up like fireworks and there were several loud bangs."
The BBC's Andrew Clark was inside the building when the blast occurred.
"The room shook. There was a loud banging. There was some panic."
The BBC, one of the world's best-known broadcasters, continued broadcasting in makeshift rooms throughout the emergency.
Part of the building was evacuated.
A coded warning - using the same code word as when a bomb was planted on the railway line at Acton, west London, last year - was sent to a London hospital and a charitable trust one hour before the explosion.
The blast injured a London Underground worker, who suffered deep cuts around an eye from flying glass and disrupted underground services in the area.
The Irish Republican Army (IRA) has maintained a ceasefire in its campaign for independence for Northern Ireland since the landmark 1998 Good Friday peace accord, but breakaway factions, including the Real IRA, are still active.
Last July, police destroyed a bomb found near Ealing Broadway rail station, also in west London, as guerrillas tried to disrupt a pageant marking the Queen Mother's 100th birthday.
Just weeks ago a 14-year-old cadet was blinded when a bomb exploded in barracks close to the site of the BBC headquarters.
Irish dissident republicans were the main suspects in a rocket attack on the MI6 spy headquarters in central London last year.
In Thailand, a key security adviser to the Government confirmed that the bomb was placed under airline seats 11A and 11B where Mr Thaksin and his son, Phanthongthae, were to sit.
A steward, Kampol Meerlap, who was preparing the front section, died and seven staff were injured in the explosion, 35 minutes before the scheduled departure of the flight carrying 148 passengers from Bangkok to the northern city of Chiang Mai.
Mr Thaksin, who was waiting in a nearby VIP lounge when the blaze started, said he was convinced the fire was caused by "explosives."
"It is clear now that it was not caused by the engine, but involved explosives," he said.
"This is an attempt to hurt somebody. I don't know whether I was the target or somebody else, but as far as I know there were no other important people on the flight."
Mr Thaksin told reporters in Chiang Mai yesterday that his Government's top priority over the next four years would be to curb the "rampant" drug trade.
Thailand has a history of coups and violent overthrows of Governments, but no Prime Minister has faced an assassination attempt.
Mr Thaksin's movements are now a closely guarded secret to prevent further attacks.
- AGENCIES
Two days of terror on two continents
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