# Bicycle bomb

A bicycle bomb (or bike bomb) is an improvised explosive device that is placed on a bicycle.

## History
### United Kingdom

* The IRA used bicycle bombs twice in Northern Ireland and once at a British military facility in Germany.
** On 25 August 1939 an IRA bicycle bomb exploded in Coventry, killing five people. The bomb had been left in the basket of a bicycle.
** In 1979 a bomb exploded in package carried in a mailbag on a postman's bicycle in Streatley, Berkshire.
** 13 August 1994 Two bombs were planted in bags placed on bicycles in Brighton and Bognor Regis. The Bognor one detonated damaging shops but no casualties; the Brighton one was defused.
** No information is available on the bomb detonated at a British military installation in Germany.
* On 8 August 1976, a member of the Parachute Regiment, Private Robert (Bob) Borucki, was killed by the explosion of a bomb planted inside a basket of a bicycle at Crossmaglen. Borucki is buried in the cemetery in the village of Wales, near Rotherham. A year later, a sangar named after the soldier was built on the spot. The facility was removed in the early 2000s as part of the Belfast Agreement.

### Sri Lanka

* On 30 August 2001 a time bomb tied to a bicycle exploded in the coastal town Kalmunai, killing two policemen and a bystander.

### Pakistan

* A bicycle bomb exploded in a suburb of Quetta on 24 May 2004, wounding 15 police and militiamen traveling in a police truck.

### Afghanistan

* In Kandahar in the main square at least 15 people were wounded by a bicycle bomb.
* In February 2006 in the city of Kunduz as a result of a bicycle bomb two Afghans were killed and a German Bundeswehr soldier (from ISAF) was injured.
* In Kabul on 10 October 2006, a bicycle bomb exploded near a police bus, wounding 11 police officers and civilians.

### Germany

* In 1989, Alfred Herrhausen, chairman of Deutsche Bank, was killed by a sophisticated bomb hidden in a parked bicycle.

### Iraq

* In the Iraqi city of Baqubah according to the police at least 25 people were killed in a bicycle bombing on 26 June 2006.
* August 2009, a bicycle bomb explodes near a restaurant in Baghdad killing two people.

### India

* In the Indian city of Jaipur a series of seven bomb blasts took place within a span of twelve minutes on 13 May 2008, killing at least 90 people and injuring hundreds more.
* In Ahmedabad, largest city of the state of Gujarat, 45 were killed in a series of 17 blasts which took place within 1 hour on the evening of July 28, 2008.
* Twin bomb blasts at Dilsukhnagar ( Hyderabad )on Feb 21st,2013, 18 Killed and 40 Injured.

### Russia

* On August 21, 2009, in Grozny, Chechnya, alleged suicide bombers approached police checkpoints on bicycles before blowing themselves up, killing and wounding several people.

### Gaza

On 19 May 2003 a 19 year-old Hamas militant strapped explosives to the back of his bicycle in the Gaza Strip and rode it alongside an Israeli Army vehicle, detonating it, killing himself and injuring 3 Israeli soldiers.

### Spain

On 28 June 2001, a parcel bomb planted by the ETA on a bicycle exploded in Madrid, injuring at least 10 people.

## In popular culture

* The 1955 novel The Quiet American by Graham Greene describes the use of bicycle bombs in Saigon.
* The movie Charlie Wilson's War mentions the need for bicycle bombs in the Afghanistan resistance of the USSR.
* There is a band called This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, and bicycles bearing the band's stickers have caused false evacuations at airports and universities.