Milltown Cemetery attack

Milltown Cemetery attack
Part of The Troubles
The funerals, minutes before the attack
Location54°35′0″N 5°58′38″W / 54.58333°N 5.97722°W / 54.58333; -5.97722
Milltown Cemetery, Belfast,
Northern Ireland
Date16 March 1988
Weapons
Deaths3
Injured60+
PerpetratorMichael Stone

On 16 March 1988, Michael Stone, an Ulster loyalist, attacked the funeral of three Provisional IRA members, killed in Operation Flavius, at Milltown Cemetery in Belfast, Northern Ireland with hand grenades and pistols. He had learned there would be no police or armed IRA members at the cemetery. As Stone then ran towards the nearby motorway, a large crowd chased him and he continued shooting and throwing grenades. Some of the crowd caught Stone and beat him, but he was rescued by the police and arrested. Three people were killed and more than 60 wounded.

The "unprecedented, one-man attack" was filmed by television news crews and caused shock around the world. Three days later, two British Army corporals drove into the funeral procession of one of the Milltown victims. The non-uniformed soldiers were dragged from their car by an angry crowd, beaten and then shot dead by the IRA.