Special branch 'failed to pass on Omagh tip-off'

Special Branch failed to alert senior police officers about a threatened terrorist strike to take place in Omagh on the day of the atrocity, it emerged tonight.

An anonymous tip-off was delivered 11 days before the attack in August 1998 which left 29 people dead, but the information was not passed on, according to a devastating report into the Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation of the outrage.