When US police dropped explosives on a Philadelphia home
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)
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Broadcasts
- Wed 3 Mar 2021 08:50GMT91热爆 World Service
- Wed 3 Mar 2021 12:50GMT91热爆 World Service
- Wed 3 Mar 2021 18:50GMT91热爆 World Service except East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa
- Wed 3 Mar 2021 23:50GMT91热爆 World Service East and Southern Africa & West and Central Africa only
- Thu 4 Mar 2021 03:50GMT91热爆 World Service
Podcast
-
Witness History
History as told by the people who were there