It was one of the loudest explosions I've ever heard Local resident

The device, planted in the recreation centre changing room, destroyed all three floors of the building and severely damaged dozens of nearby houses.

The blast was powerful enough to be clearly heard in the centre of Deal two miles (3.2 km) away.

"It was frightening - it was one of the loudest explosions I've ever heard," said one woman who lives close to the barracks.

Rescuers and other marines from the music school attempted to clear away the rubble of the building with their bare hands in the search for survivors before heavy lifting equipment arrived.

Kent ambulance workers, who were on strike at the time, voluntarily abandoned their industrial action to ferry the casualties to hospitals in Deal and Canterbury.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - who was told of the attack during a flight from Tokyo to Moscow - said she was "shocked and extremely sad".

The opposition leader, Neil Kinnock, condemned the murder of the unarmed bandsmen as an "awful atrocity".

"Even the people who say they support what the IRA calls its cause must be sickened by the way in which such death and injury is mercilessly inflicted," he said.

	E-mail this story to a friend