London beefs up police for shoppers, workers

Police mounted a big security operation to protect shoppers and workers from a fresh bombing campaign by Irish nationalist guerrillas campaigning to end British rule in Northern Ireland.

Police said extra officers were brought into town after three bomb attacks in three weeks and a warning by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) that it intends to wage economic war against Britain by disrupting pre-Christmas trade, especially in the Oxford Street shopping district.

Their efforts Tuesday were hampered by a spate of hoax bomb calls which temporarily closed some railroad and subway stations.