Birmingham pub bombings were MURDER: Jury finds warning call made before double IRA terror blasts was 'inadequate' and that 21 innocent victims were unlawfully killed By Richard Spillett, Crime Correspondent For Mailonline Published: 13:21 BST, 5 April 2019 | Updated: 13:34 BST, 5 April 2019 Viewcomments A botched warning call by the IRA caused or contributed to the deaths of 21 people killed in the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings, an inquest jury has found. A jury at the city’s civil court concluded all the victims were unlawfully killed, following a direction from coroner Sir Peter Thornton QC. Two massive detonations caused what one witness described as "pure carnage", ripping apart the packed Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town pubs on the night of November 21, killing 21 and injuring 220 more. A jury panel, which sat for almost six weeks and deliberated for almost five hours, unanimously determined that an inadequate warning call by the Provisional IRA, which carried out the attacks, cost the stretched police vital minutes. They also found there were no failings, errors or omissions by West Midlands Police's response to the bomb warning call, and further concluded there was no tip-off to the force, giving advanced warning the blasts were going to happen. The blasts at the Mulberry Bush (shown) and the Tavern in the Town killed 21 people in 1974 A body is carried from the Mulberry Bush. A jury today found the victims were unlawfully killed It comes after an ex-IRA member gave evidence in which he named four of those behind the attacks and gave the nicknames of two others, apparently with the blessing of IRA leaders. The anonymous witness, himself a convicted bomber, said Seamus McLoughlan was the commander of the Birmingham IRA at the time and selected the targets, while Mick Murray and Michael Hayes were part of the bombing team and another man, James Gavin, was involved. Murray, McLoughlan and Gavin have all since died and the man, named in court only as 'Witness O', claimed that Hayes has protection from prosecution following the peace process. In 1975, six men - the Birmingham Six - were convicted over the blasts but acquitted 16 years later. The attacks remain Britain's largest unsolved terror crime. Maxine Hambleton was one of 11 people killed in the Tavern in the Town pub Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site dailymail and under his responsibility