![]() Black smoke streamed across the skyline, and glass, bricks and other debris were spread over a wide area. The explosion, similar to the terrorist car bombing that killed six people and injured 1,000 at New York’s World Trade Center in 1993, happened just after 9 a.m., when most of the more than 500 federal employees were in their offices. “When I came out, I could see daylight if I looked north and daylight if I looked west.” “I dove under that table,” said Brian Espe, a state veterinarian who was giving a slide presentation on the fifth floor. ![]() Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983. Their clothes torn off, victims covered in glass and plaster emerged bloodied and crying from the building, which looked as if a giant bite had been taken out of it, exposing its floors like a dollhouse.Ĭables and other debris dangled from the floors like tangled streamers in a scene that brought to mind the car bombings at the U.S. An axle of the vehicle was found about two blocks from the scene, said a police source who requested anonymity. The bomb was believed to be in a minivan with Texas plates, owned by National Car Rental, said Oklahoma City Police Sgt. The bulletin said the information was on the authority of the FBI. President Clinton called the bombers “evil cowards,” and Reno said the government would seek the death penalty against them.Ī Department of Public Safety dispatcher in El Paso, Texas, told the El Paso Times that an alert had been issued from the DPS for two people who may be bloodied and may be trying to cross into Mexico at Laredo, Texas. The first of four urban search and rescue units activated by the federal government was headed into the building early Thursday, using dogs, acoustic listening equipment and tiny cameras to look for victims.Īttorney General Janet Reno refused to comment on who might have been behind the attack. “Our firefighters are having to crawl over corpses in areas to get to people that are still alive,” said Hansen. She didn’t know if they were dead or alive. He also said a woman trapped in the basement said there were two others with her. He said a 15-year-old girl was taken from the building in critical condition. Three people were pulled from the rubble Wednesday night but two died a short time later, said Assistant Fire Chief Jon Hansen. “The area impacted here is just as bad, if not worse.” “I was in Japan for the Kobe earthquake and saw the devastation,” said James Lee Witt, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Scores were feared trapped in the rubble of the Alfred P. Both men were motivated by contempt for government, the hatred sharpened by the 1993 federal raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas.Īt least 200 people were injured - 58 critically, according to Fire Chief Gary Marrs. ![]() Another ex-soldier, Terry Nichols, was convicted on similar charges for his role in the bombing and sentenced to life without parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty. soldier Timothy McVeigh was convicted in 1997 on 11 counts of murder, conspiracy and using a weapon of mass destruction in the explosion. Media and some Americans immediately speculated that Middle Eastern men were the culprits before the FBI later found that two white men were responsible for the attack.įormer U.S. The bombing occurred just two years after the first attack on the World Trade Center. Murrah Federal Building killed 168 people and injured more than 500 others in what remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism on American soil. Army soldier parked a rented Ryder truck loaded with explosives outside a federal office building in Oklahoma City. OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - EDITOR’S NOTE: On April 19, 1995, a former U.S. ![]()
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