Parents' bedside vigil for bomb blast boy

Detectives were today waiting to interview a young cadet who lost his hand when a torch bomb exploded at a Territorial Army base.

Stephen Menary, 14, was in intensive care overnight after undergoing emergency surgery.

His parents were keeping a bedside vigil at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

Detectives are waiting for him to recover before interviewing him on how he came to find the bomb.

Scotland Yard said there was nothing to suggest Irish terrorists were behind the explosion which happened at the TA Centre in Shepherd’s Bush, west London, on Wednesday night.

Security sources believe that it is ‘‘less and less likely’’ that the bomb was planted by terrorists and are looking at other possibilities.

Yesterday police issued a security alert after disclosing that the device had been deliberately planted and was potentially lethal.

Sources do not believe a recognised terrorist group was responsible and it remains unclear how the device came to be at the base.

There was no suggestion that the boy made the bomb himself.

Officers are investigating a number of lines of inquiry, including the possibility that the bomb may have been planted by a lone attacker with a grudge.

A police spokesman said: ‘‘We don’t know how it came to be outside the centre. It was clearly aimed to cause serious injury. It was both criminal and vicious and could have caused death.’’

Forensic tests were continuing today in a bid to trace the person who made the bomb.

The spokesman added: ‘‘We cannot rule out the significance of the military venue, although at this time there is nothing to suggest that it is related to Irish terrorism or any other known terrorist group.

‘‘We are advising people to be alert to suspicious packages or objects particularly any object that looks like a torch.

"We would appeal especially to parents to be alert when out with their children. An object like a torch could easily excite a child’s curiosity.’’

It is believed Stephen brought the device in from outside and took it into the TA building, on South Africa Road, where it exploded.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said 24 cadets had been on parade at the base, accompanied by three adults.

The building where the blast occurred is the base of the 4th Battalion Parachute Regiment 10 (London) company of the Territorial Army.

One mother, whose two children are members of the same cadet force, described Stephen as a ‘‘lovely, caring boy’’.