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When US police dropped explosives on activists' house
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 the MOVE organisaton. Fire spread quickly through the surrounding buildings and 11 people died, including five children. All the victims belonged to MOVE. More than sixty houses in the area were also burnt or badly damaged in the botched police operation. The former Philadelphia reporter, Linn Washington, tells Witness History about that tragic day. Photo: Aerial view of smoke rising from smouldering rubble in Osage Avenue, West Philadelphia, May 1985 (Getty Images)
