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Witness History: When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home

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When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home

03/03/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - Witness History, When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home

How 11 people died when explosives were dropped on a house by a police helicopter

How explosives dropped by a US police helicopter on a house in residential Philadelphia in May 1985 killed 11 people inside, including five children.

On 13 May 1985 a police helicopter dropped explosives on a house in residential Philadelphia, in an attempt to end a stand-off with radical black activists from an organisaton called MOVE. Fire spread quickly through the surrounding buildings and 11 people died, including five children. All the victims belonged to MOVE. A total of sixty houses in the area were also burnt or badly damaged in the botched police operation. Mike Lanchin speaks to Mike Africa, who lost his great uncle and a cousin in the fire, and to the former Philadelphia reporter, Linn Washington. 

Photo: Aerial view of smoke rising from smouldering rubble in Osage Avenue, West Philadelphia, May 1985 (Getty Images)

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