17 Disturbing Photos With Horrifying Backstories

14. Omagh Bombing

Omagh

Imagine walking along a city street, out for a leisurely stroll with your young daughter when you stop to pose for a photo. Nothing out of the ordinary, just another average day in your life. But unbeknownst to you, just a few feet away from where you stood for the photo, that seemingly innocuous red car is filled with deadly explosives, and it's moments away from detonation.

In August of 1998, the Real IRA, an IRA splinter group, perpetrated a car bombing on the street of Omagh, Northern Ireland. The bombing was a protest to the IRA's ceasefire and Good Friday Agreement, killing 29 people and wounding 220 more. It was the deadliest attack from a single incident throughout the entirety of The Troubles, the Irish conflict that took place over the course of more than 30 years.

Warning calls were placed, but their inaccuracy led to police inadvertently driving people toward the bomb rather than away from it. The image was found on a camera pulled from the rubble, and the Spanish man and his daughter seen in the photo both miraculously survived.

The picture serves as a stark reminder that life can change in a flash and chaos can erupt in the most mundane of settings.

 
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Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.