WORLD : British Security Blasts Errant Van

BLACKPOOL, England — A Mexican trapeze artist today was the first victim of a massive security operation at the Conservative Party conference in Blackpool after his van was blown up by British troops.

Gerardo Rodogel, late for his act at a circus Sunday night, left the Dutch-licensed van in a no-parking zone just yards from the site of the party’s annual meeting in this northern English seaside resort. Minutes later police sealed off roads and called in army bomb disposal experts to carry out a “controlled explosion.”

Security has been very tight at Conservative Party conferences since their 1984 meeting when a bomb planted by Irish republican guerrillas almost killed Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.