How the Guardian covered the PC Yvonne Fletcher story in 1984

On 17 April 1984, PC Yvonne Fletcher was shot from inside the Libyan embassy as gunfire opened on anti-Gaddafi demonstrators. 

Leon Brittan, Conservative home secretary, said the killing was a “barbaric outrage.” His comments were quoted in the paper’s front page story.

 Guardian, 18 April 1984, p1

On the inside pages, Michael Zander wrote a background piece explaining why Libya’s political war had come to Britain. Michael Walker explained diplomatic immunity.

 Guardian, 18 April 1984,p2

A Guardian leader column condemned the killing of a police officer and wounding of demonstrators, saying: “we cannot harbour a diplomatic mission which shoots from behind its privileged curtains into British streets”