Pressure mounts on police chief over Omagh

Northern Ireland’s police chief was under pressure today following the revelation that Special Branch failed to alert senior officers about a threatened terrorist strike to take place in Omagh on the day of the Real IRA atrocity.

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 then Royal Ulster Constabulary investigation of the outrage.