Lost's Dominic slammed for joke about IRA bombing

Dominic Monaghan has caused controversy - saying the IRA did his hometown a 'favour' by blowing it up.

The Lost star, who grew up in Stockport and Manchester, was talking to Los Angeles radio show Petros And Money about his hometown when he referred to the terrorist attack on the town centre in 1996, which injured 200 people.

Dominic said: "When I was growing up there it was much rougher and then the IRA did one of the greatest favours they have ever done for us - they planted a bomb in the town centre and because of the large Irish contingent living in Manchester, they alerted police and everyone left.

"Then they blew up the town centre and the government gave us a billion pounds to rebuild it... So the town centre is really cleaned up, kind of in the way Manhattan was cleaned up - they just pushed out all the mess."

Several Manchester politicians have condemned the actor for his comments.

Manchester Central MP Tony Lloyd told The Manchester Evening News: "It's a long-standing joke that it did us a favour. But bombs in public places are not a laughing matter."

City centre councillor Pat Karney, said: "That the bomb did us a favour is one of the big Manchester myths of modern times. I remember what the lady who had 30 pieces of glass in her face looked like. I was one of the hundreds who ran screaming from the city. When I think about the bomb I don't think about it as a favour."