Bicycle bomb
A bicycle bomb is an improvised explosive device that is placed on a bicycle.
History
Afghanistan
- In Kandahar in the main square at least 15 people were wounded by a bicycle bomb.
- In February 2006 in the city of Kunduz as a result of a bicycle bomb two Afghans were killed and a German Bundeswehr soldier was injured.
- In Kabul on 10 October 2006, a bicycle bomb exploded near a police bus, wounding 11 police officers and civilians.
Gaza
On 19 May 2003 a 19 year-old Hamas militant strapped explosives to the back of his bicycle in the Gaza Strip and rode it alongside an Israeli Army vehicle, detonating it, killing himself and injuring 3 Israeli soldiers.Germany
- In 1989, Alfred Herrhausen, chairman of Deutsche Bank, was killed by a sophisticated bomb hidden in a parked bicycle.
India
- In the Indian city of Jaipur a series of 13 [May 2008 Jaipur bombings|seven bomb blasts] took place within a span of twelve minutes on 13 May 2008, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more.
- In Ahmedabad, largest city of the state of Gujarat, 45 were killed in a series of 17 blasts which took place within 1 hour on the evening of July 28, 2008.
- Twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar on Feb 21st,2013, 18 Killed and 40 Injured.
Iraq
- In the Iraqi city of Baqubah according to the police at least 25 people were killed in a bicycle bombing on 26 June 2006.
- August 2009, a bicycle bomb explodes near a restaurant in Baghdad killing two people.
Pakistan
- A bicycle bomb exploded in a suburb of Quetta on 24 May 2004, wounding 15 police and militiamen traveling in a police truck.
Russia
- On August 21, 2009, in Grozny, Chechnya, alleged suicide bombers approached police checkpoints on bicycles before blowing themselves up, killing and wounding several people.
Spain
On 28 June 2001, a parcel bomb planted by the ETA on a bicycle exploded in Madrid, injuring at least 10 people.Sri Lanka
- On 30 August 2001 a time bomb tied to a bicycle exploded in the coastal town Kalmunai, killing two policemen and a bystander.
United Kingdom
- The IRA used bicycle bombs twice in Northern Ireland and once at a British military facility in Germany.
- * On 25 August 1939 an IRA bicycle bomb exploded in Coventry, killing five people. The bomb had been left in the basket of a bicycle.
- * In 1979 a bomb exploded in package carried in a mailbag on a postman's bicycle in Streatley, Berkshire.
- * 13 August 1994 Two bombs were planted in bags placed on bicycles in Brighton and Bognor Regis. The Bognor one detonated damaging shops but no casualties; the Brighton one was defused.
- * No information is available on the bomb detonated at a British military installation in Germany.
- On 8 August 1976, a member of the Parachute Regiment, Private Robert Borucki, was killed by the explosion of a bomb planted inside a basket of a bicycle at Crossmaglen. Borucki is buried in the cemetery in the village of Wales, near Rotherham. A year later, a sangar named after the soldier was built on the spot. The facility was removed in the early 2000s as part of the Belfast Agreement.
In popular culture
- The 1955 novel The Quiet American by Graham Greene describes the use of bicycle bombs in Saigon.
- The movie Charlie Wilson's War mentions the need for bicycle bombs in the Afghanistan resistance of the USSR.
- There is a band called This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, and bicycles bearing the band's stickers have caused false evacuations at airports and universities.