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Tower Hamlets Council is hoping for pounds 2m compensation following the IRA bombing last February in Docklands, east London. Few of the families living near the South Quay blast last February had insurance policies; some families have been offered loans from the Government's social fund but many have been unable to take them up because they cannot afford repayments.

The council has applied to Sir Patrick Mayhew, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, for a grant under the Criminal Damage (Compensation) (Northern Ireland) Order, set up in 1977 to help those who had property damaged in Northern Ireland as a result of terrorist acts. Charlie Bain