This article is about the explosive device. For the band, seeNailbomb.
An assortment of nailsIsrael Defense Forces soldiers examining an explosives factory inNablus containing various types of improvised shrapnel, 2002.
Anail bomb is ananti-personnelexplosive device containingnails to increase its effectiveness at harming victims. The nails act asshrapnel, leading almost certainly to more injury in inhabited areas than theexplosives alone would. A nail bomb is also a type offlechette weapon. Such weapons use bits ofshrapnel (steel balls, nail heads,screws, needles, brokenrazors,darts and other small metal objects) to create a larger radius of destruction.
Nail bombs are often used by terrorists, includingsuicide bombers since they cause larger numbers of casualties when detonated in crowded places. Nail bombs can be detected by electromagnetic sensors and standardmetal detectors.
Mark Hofmann, convicted of murdering two people with a nail bomb in 1985.[2]
In 1989, football hooligans threw nail bombs at supporters of a rival club in theNetherlands.
A number of nail-bombings occurred in 1999 when theneo-Nazi David Copeland planted several devices inLondon targeted against ethnic minorities and LGBT people.
On 11 October 2002 inMyyrmäki,Finland, a 19-year-old namedPetri Gerdt committed a nail bombing in a local mall. Seven people died including Gerdt, and 159 were injured.[3]
On 9 June 2004, a nail bomb was detonated in Cologne, Germany, by the Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground (Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund) in a popular Turkish shopping quarter called "Little Istanbul", wounding 22 people and damaging several shops and parked cars. According to the magazineDer Spiegel, the Nazi group claimed responsibility for the attack in a DVD found in the ruins of a house in Zwickau (D) that exploded on 4 November 2011.[4]
On 31 December 2005, an Indonesian marketplace wasnail-bombed, and a second undetonated bomb was found nearby.
On29 June 2007, a nail bomb that was assumed to be a part of a terror plot was discovered in a car and was consequently defused by police in theWest End of London. There was a second car bomb, further down the street that was apparently scheduled to detonate as evacuees and survivors fled down the street, to a nearby tube station.
On21 December 2007, a nail bomb was detonated inSherpao,Pakistan by a suicide bomber. Detonation occurred inside a tightly packedmosque, filled with holiday worshippers. At least 50 people were killed, with over 100 injured.
In the22 May 2008 Exeter bombing, a nail bomb explosive was detonated in the toilets of Giraffe café in thePrincesshay Shopping Centre inExeter,Devon. The homemade bomb exploded in the attacker's face as he was trying to arm it in the café toilet. Police then found another nail bomb inside the café after everybody had been evacuated.[5]
On 22 March 2016, nail bombs were used byISIL duringthe terrorist attacks on Brussels Airport, Zaventem and the metro station in Maalbeek.[8]
On 24 September 2016, a nail bomb was detonated inBudapest,Hungary. Two policemen and a taxi driver were injured in theattack.[9]
On 22 May 2017, a nail-bombattack occurred at theManchester Arena where American singerAriana Grande was performing. The total number of people killed was 22 and 1,017 were injured. Among the 22 dead were children, including one who was 8 years old.[10]
On 17 October 2018, Vladislav Roslyakov killed 20 people using a nail bomb and a pump-action shotgun during anattack onKerch Polytechnic College.[11]
^Robinson, Douglas (12 March 1970)."Miss Wilkerson's Parents Make Plea For Her to Clarify Toll in Bombing".The New York Times.Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved5 December 2007.The parents of a 25-year-old woman missing from a demolished Greenwich Village home where the police said a militant left-wing group was fashioning bombs made an impassioned plea to their daughter yesterday to disclose how many people were in the building at the time of the blast.
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