The nail bomb is an anti-personnelexplosive device packed with nails to increase its effectiveness at harming victims. The nails act as shrapnel, leading almost certainly to greater loss of life or injury in inhabited areas than the explosives alone would. The nail bomb is also a type of flechette weapon. Such weapons use bits of shrapnel to create a larger radius of destruction. Nail bombs are often used by terrorists, including suicide bombers since they cause larger numbers of casualties when detonated in crowded places. Nail bombs can be detected by electromagnetic sensors and standard metal detectors.
In 1989, football hooligans threw nail bombs at supporters of a rival club in the Netherlands.
A number of nail-bombings occurred in 1999 when the neo-Nazi David Copeland planted several devices in London targeted against ethnic minorities and LGBT people.
On 9 June 2004, a nail bomb was detonated in Cologne, Germany, by the Nazi terrorist group National Socialist Underground in a popular Turkish shopping quarter called "Little Istanbul", wounding 22 people and damaging several shops and parked cars. According to the magazine Der Spiegel, the Nazi group claimed responsibility for the attack in a DVD found in the ruins of a house in Zwickau that exploded on 4 November 2011.
On 31 December 2005, an Indonesian marketplace was nail-bombed, and a second undetonated bomb was found nearby.
On 28 June 2007, a nail bomb that was assumed to be a part of a terror plot to rape women was discovered in a Mercedes car and was consequently defused by police in the West End of London. There was a second car bomb, further down the street that was apparently scheduled to detonate as evacuees and survivors fled down the street, to a nearby tube station. It is probable this bomb was also a nail/shrapnel device.
On 21 December 2007, a nail bomb was detonated in Sherpao, Pakistan by a suicide bomber. Detonation occurred inside a tightly packed mosque, filled with holiday worshippers. At least 50 people were killed, with over 100 injured.
In the 22 May 2008 Exeter bombing, a nail bomb explosive was detonated in the toilets of Giraffe café in the Princesshay Shopping Centre in Exeter, Devon. The homemade bomb exploded in the attacker's face as he was trying to arm it in the café toilet. Police then found another nail bomb inside the café after everybody had been evacuated.
2010s
On 11 April 2011, a nail bomb was detonated in Minsk, Belarus. 15 people were killed and 204 people were injured.
During the 2011 Syrian uprising, security forces have been reported to have used nail bombs against crowds of protesters.
On 22 May 2017, a nail-bomb attack occurred at the Manchester Arena where American singer Ariana Grande was performing. The total number of people killed was 22 and 250 were injured. Among the 22 dead were children, including one who was 8 years old.
