A CLERGYMAN who lives next door to the barracks in Magheralave Road, Lisburn, described how debris from the blast landed in a playing field near the base.
"I was sitting in my study when it went off," the Rev Brian Gibson said.
"I could see shrapnel all over the playing field. It seemed to be in the middle of a field where some girls were playing hockey.
"There were bits of some sort of vehicle - I would say it was a lorry. When the second bomb went off, two windows in my house broke with the force of the explosion.
"There was no screaming, just an awful silence for a considerable length of time. Then all the emergency services started to arrive."
A woman living near the barracks said the explosions were deafening.
"Everywhere shook, we didn't know what was happening. I went upstairs and saw all the smoke. There were children out on the playing field who were really close to it."
Alistair Finlay (16) was one of about 80 schoolchildren playing on the fields when the blasts occurred.
His mother, Ms Liz Finlay, was astonished that no child was hurt by flying debris.
Alistair said: "I saw bits of metal and what looked like bits of a car. Then there was all this black smoke. When the second explosion went off, we were in the changing rooms and some of the windows broke.
The first explosion happened just after 4.30 p.m. and could be heard five miles away. There was a second explosion about five minutes later.
Within an hour of the first blast, police barricades were in place around the barracks and all casualties had been taken from the scene.
Firemen watched the scene of the blast, which had produced clouds of billowing black smoke that could be seen for miles.
A 45 bed neurological hospital unit close to the Lisburn barracks was damaged by the blasts but no occupant was injured.
Mr John Compton, deputy chief executive of the Down and Lisburn Trust, which runs the hospital and the Lagan Valley hospital, said the patients had been very disturbed by the explosion.
The patients are all bedbound, suffering from such illnesses as multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. "They are very distressed - you can imagine if you were in a bed and bombs go off and you can't move," he said.
All the windows in the rear of the building were blown in. The 45 patients were housed on the other side of the building and escaped the effects of the blasts.
Speaking at Lagan Valley hospital, where staff treated the bomb victims, Mr Compton praised his staff for their dedication, saying: "They are obviously distressed at what has happened and that bombs have gone off again."
Several relatives had been in touch with the hospital and they were being given whatever support they needed, he said.