All of Britain's daily newspapers covered the shootings the following morning, several of which cited the size of the alleged car bomb as and claimed that it was "packed with shrapnel". The same morning, Ian Stewart, Minister of State for the Armed Forces, told BBC Radio 4 that "military personnel were involved" in the shootings, and that "a car bomb was found, which has been defused". The following day, Sir Geoffrey Howe, the British foreign secretary, made a statement to the House of Commons regarding the shootings, in which he informed the house that the IRA members were unarmed, and that the car parked in the assembly area did not contain an explosive device. Howe stated that the IRA members "made movements which led the military personnel, operating in support of the Gibraltar Police, to conclude that their own lives and the lives of others were under threat". "In light of this response", Howe continued, "they were shot" by "military personnel, operating in support of the Gibraltar Police". Subsequent inquiries led to the discovery of a large quantity of explosives in Marbella ( from Gibraltar), along with detonators and timers. "This Week" editor, Roger Bolton, initially believed there was little merit in investigating the shootings. Based on the official account of events that was presented in the immediate aftermath of the shootings, Bolton believed that most people would think the IRA members "deserved what they got". Bolton's interest was piqued by Howe's statement, and the revelation in it that the deceased were unarmed and were not in possession of a bomb. Shortly afterwards, he dispatched two of "This Week"s journalists, Julian Manyon and Chris Oxley, to Gibraltar and Spain (respectively) to gather more information on the shootings. Bolton believed that the Milltown Cemetery attack and the corporals killings, two events in Belfast which resulted from the Gibraltar killings, provided "even more compelling reasons" to investigate the shootings; the team considered switching the focus of the programme to the effects the shootings had in Belfast, but decided to continue with the original project. After ten days' investigation, Oxley was surprised to learn that the Gibraltar Police were handling the police investigation into the shootings, having been closely involved in the events leading up to them. He also grew concerned that the police investigation was insufficiently rigorous when he learned that the police had not taken statements from residents whose flats overlooked the scene of Farrell's and McCann's deaths. The Gibraltar coroner, Felix Pizzarello, welcomed "This Week"s investigation, telling Oxley that he hoped the journalists would uncover witnesses who could assist the inquest.