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Birmingham pub bombings inquest to be reopened Birmingham pub bombings inquests to be reopened
(35 minutes later)
Inquests into deaths of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings are to be reopened, a coroner has ruled.Inquests into deaths of 21 people in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings are to be reopened, a coroner has ruled.
Louise Hunt said: "There is a wealth of evidence that still has not been heard - I have decided the inquest should resume." Louise Hunt said there had been a "wealth of evidence that still has not been heard" about the atrocities.
She said she had received information suggesting authorities had been tipped off when two men were overheard saying Birmingham would be bombed "next week". The hearing was told there was evidence West Midlands Police had missed two potential warnings of the bomb attacks.
The information was "filed away", the coroner said. It included a comment made by men linked to IRA that "Birmingham would be hit next week".
No action was taken by police, which Ms Hunt described as a "missed opportunity".
West Midlands Police had argued the coroner did not have the jurisdiction to hear the inquests but she told the hearing she rejected that submission.West Midlands Police had argued the coroner did not have the jurisdiction to hear the inquests but she told the hearing she rejected that submission.
The original hearings, opened days after the attacks, were not continued after the jailing of six men, whose convictions were later quashed.
The Birmingham and Solihull coroner reviewed a huge body of police evidence and heard submissions from the victims' relatives and other interested parties in February.
The overheard conversation was reported to police on November 10 1974, 11 days before the bombings, but Ms Hunt said there was "no indication that the police took any active steps in response to it".
On the day of the attack, a second tip-off to the police was not followed up, she added.
Ms Hunt went on: "I have serious concerns that advanced notice of the bombs may have been available to the police and that they failed to take the necessary steps to protect life."
Pub bombers 'will not be jailed'
Q&A: Pub bombings inquests
The double bombing on 21 November 1974, which destroyed the Mulberry Bush pub at the base of the city's landmark Bullring Rotunda and the underground Tavern in the Town, is widely acknowledged to have been the work of the IRA.
It was the worst terrorist attack on the British mainland until the London 7/7 bombings and left 21 dead and 182 injured.
Those responsible have never faced justice and the only men to be tried for the crime - the Birmingham Six - had their convictions overturned by the Court of Appeal in 1991, after a botched investigation by West Midlands Police.
One of the six wrongly convicted, Paddy Hill, said outside the court: "They (police) don't want them [the inquests] because there's too many skeletons in the cupboard.
"They had advanced warning and they took no notice."