UK News 12-11-2001 Pipe Bomb Kills Belfast Teenager who: Protestant teenager Glen `Spacer` Sloan what: Dies when pipe bomb explodes in his hand during riot where: BELFAST when: Yesterday snippet: "A teenager died last night after a device exploded in his hand as he prepared to throw it during fierce rioting in north Belfast," reports The Guardian. Glen "Spacer" Sloan - aged either 16 or 17 according to varying reports, died in hospital after suffering severe injuries to his head and arm. "The incident happened in the North Queen Street area," explains The Independent`s Ireland correspondent David McKittrick, "one of many north Belfast districts that have been plagued by sectarian riots and clashes with the security forces since the summer. Bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and blast bombs were thrown at police and troops in disturbances that involved several hundred people." A Protestant community worker tells The Telegraph that nationalists are to blame for the death. "The blast bomb was thrown over from the republican side," says Eddie McClean, who claims that the teenager "picked it up to throw it away when it exploded." But a police witness quoted in The Times dismisses the claims, saying simply: "Nationalists do not make pipe bombs." [... more]

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