that might take the centre 'up-market'. The northern part of the centre saw little investment for years, and the market hall was seen as ripe for improvement. The bus station became Manchester's busiest, handling 30,000 passengers and 1,500 bus movements per day by 1991. It was unpopular with travellers, especially women. Described as "dirty and horrible", its poorly lit interior was identified by Taylor as inherently threatening and a "landscape of fear". As a shopping centre Manchester Arndale was outstandingly successful, and the critics' opinions were not universally held – especially by its owners. By 1996 the Arndale was fully let, raised £20 m a year in rents, was the seventh busiest shopping area in the UK in terms of sales, and was visited by 750,000 people a week. The poet Lemn Sissay wrote The Arndale Centre was always just the Arndale Centre. A palace of Perspex and people. A light extravaganza. ... a shopper's heaven on earth. In all its gargantuan glory I love it. Whether it is ugly or not is a purely subjective opinion. It is wonderful inside." 1996 IRA bombing The centre became a target for terrorists. Arson attacks in April 1991 were followed by firebombs in December 1991 which caused extensive damage to four stores. The Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) was blamed for the incidents, in which the devices were placed in soft furnishings during shopping hours. After the second attack, Christmas shopping continued much as normal the following day in the unaffected stores. An unnamed fireman noted, "What bugs me is if there's a big one planted there's a lot of glass around here, and a lot of people will be killed". At about 09:20 on Saturday morning, 15 June 1996, two men parked a lorry containing a bomb on Corporation Street between Marks & Spencer and the Arndale. At about 09:45, a coded warning was received by Granada TV. The usual weekend population of shoppers was supplemented by football fans in town for the Russia v Germany match of UEFA Euro 1996, due to be staged on Sunday at Old Trafford. About 80,000 people were cleared from the area by police and store staff using procedures developed after an IRA bombing incident in 1992, assisted by outside staff experienced in crowd control drafted in to help with the football fans. The bomb exploded at 11:17, shortly after the army bomb squad arrived