The father of the youngest victim of the Claudy bombing has said the IRA should admit whether or not it was responsible for the attack.

Billy Eakin was speaking on Wednesday on the 30th anniversary of the attack which claimed the lives of nine people in the small County Londonderry village.

Three bombs exploded without warning on Main Street in the village on 31 July 1972.

Both Catholics and Protestants died in what was to become the worst terrorist atrocity ever in the village.

Billy Eakin: "The bomb was meant to maim and kill"

The attack came hours after the army launched Operation Motorman to regain control of no-go areas in the Bogside and Creggan in Derry.

The IRA was widely blamed for the bombings - but the organisation has never admitted that it was involved.

Mr Eakin's eight-year-old daughter Kathryn was the youngest victim.

"All the things that I have gleaned over the years points the finger straight at them," he said.

"As far as their statement that they are sorry for hurting people goes, the bombs they planted in this village contained shrapnel which they didn't need.

"If you want to blow up a building you just use explosives but to put in pieces of shrapnel that was meant to maim and to kill people."

About 100 people attended Wednesday's service, including relatives of the dead and injured and politicians from both sides of the community.

The Eakins say that even if the IRA did admit involvement they don't know whether they could accept the organisation's recent apology to "non-combatants".