On September 5, 1975, a bomb explodes in the lobby of the London Hilton on Park Lane, London, killing two people and injuring sixty-three others.

Ten minutes before the explosion, the Daily Mail newspaper receives a warning by telephone. Having been notified, Scotland Yard immediately sends three officers to investigate, but they are not able to evacuate the building before the bomb explodes at 12:18 BST. The Provisional Irish Republican Army claims responsibility for the bombing. Police work quickly to clear the area after the explosion fearing there could be another device nearby. The blast causes extensive damage to the hotel and neighbouring shops with broken glass spread over a wide area. Witnesses say police arrived only five minutes before the bomb went off, and it is not clear whether the hotel was warned before they showed up. A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police says an officer telephoned the Hilton shortly after receiving the warning, but the hotel denies this. “A policeman was just telling the assistant manager that he had better evacuate when the bomb went off,” says press officer Anne Crewdson.

London is on a high state of alert and several areas of the capital are sealed off as a series of hoax warnings follow the Hilton blast. A commander in the Metropolitan Police says they were forced to act every time they were telephoned. “No call can be taken casually,” he says.

A second attempt to bomb the London Hilton hotel is made on September 7, 1992. The explosion causes slight damage in a lavatory on the ground floor but nobody is injured.