Nail bomb school is returning to normal

Sep 25 2007 by Vicky Anderson, Liverpool Daily Post

LIFE began to return to normal yesterday for parents and pupils at the Merseyside school rocked by a car bomb attack on a teacher’s vehicle last Friday.

Around 300 primary pupils returned to Runnymede St Edwards School, in West Derby, yesterday following the explosion, which happened shortly before children were about to leave for the weekend.

At the Eaton Road end of North Drive, police and community support officers stopped cars, asking occupants if they had been present on Friday afternoon and may have seen anything.

Police condemned the planting of what is believed to be a nailbomb in a silver Nissan Micra parked in the teacher’s car park, and warned bystanders could have been killed.

Last night, signs of normality returned to the private school, with an ice cream van parked outside the teachers’ car park to greet children leaving at 3.30pm.

A police van was stationed farther down the road, and a single policeman wandered the beat as a reassuring presence.

Parents waiting outside the school gates last night said that they still did not know why the teacher had been targeted.

One grandfather waiting for his grandson said: “I haven’t heard whether it was a prank, or a personal grudge, but I think it’s an awful thing to happen with the little kids so near by.”

Another said: “I don’t know what happened, but the teachers have handled the situation really well.”

Children were given a letter to take home from the school explaining to parents what had happened.

Last night, police were still refusing to say whether the “incendiary device” used to blow up the car was a nailbomb.

vickyanderson