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This unbelievable footage shows the moment police directed shoppers away from a lorry just minutes before it exploded on the streets of Manchester city centre .

The incredible clip shows a police officer ushering people to safety away from the lorry, parked on Corporation Street, which was carrying a 1,500kg explosive device.

A crowd of people can be seen walking around police cordons and speaking to the officer, while the lorry is visible in the background.

Within minutes a bomb disposal robot can be seen arriving to the scene and inspects the parked van.

The footage - taken from CCTV across the city centre - then pans out and captures the dramatic moment the bomb is detonated, close to Marks & Spencer and the Arndale shopping centre.

The van can be seen suddenly exploding after it was set off by the provisional IRA.

Clouds of smoke can be seen billowing over the city as the camera zooms out showing the devastation.

The moment of the explosion has been seen before but the new footage captures the officers in action as well as the bomb disposal robot.

The IRA had telephoned warnings about 90 minutes before the bomb detonated.

Although the area was evacuated, the bomb squad were unable to defuse the bomb in time.

A total of 212 people were injured when the bomb exploded in the busy city centre on the morning of Saturday, June 15 in 1996.

Incredibly, nobody was killed in the blast, which will be marked with 20th anniversary commemorations later this year.

The bomb caused £700m worth of damage, destroying buildings within a half-mile radius and took several months to clean up.

The new footage - which was this week shared on Facebook and has attracted 700,000 views in just two days - comes after previously unseen pictures showing the devastating impact the IRA bombing left on the city centre were unearthed.

See them here:

The images, discovered in an architects office, were found by Duncan Brown, 40, from Oldham.

Some of the photographs, taken three days after the bombing, show the destroyed Arndale Centre and the Corn Exchange.

Another image shows a Manchester Evening News stall still upstanding, but surrounded by rubble.

Shattered glass, rubble and debris can be seen strewn across streets, including destroyed buildings such as the Lunn Poly travel shop and JD Sports.

It is understood the images are the only photographs showing the damage in such detail.

Map shows IRA bomb devastation