The death toll from the Brighton bomb would have been far higher but for the heroic efforts of the emergency services.

Firefighters, paramedics and police officers all risked their lives to help victims trapped in the rubble.

The 100lb bomb blast rocked The Grand hotel but the worst damage was done by a huge chimney plunging through nine floors to the basement.

The facade of The Grand was ripped down and several rooms were destroyed.

All that remained of the bathroom where the device was planted was a single drainage pipe.

The building was clearly unstable but that did not prevent East Sussex fire brigade officers going inside and hoisting the survivors to safety.

Harvey Thomas, the conference organiser, was trapped in the building for more than three hours.

Suspended over the gaping hole left by the collapsing chimney, he was winched to safety by firefighters and an off-duty surgeon.

The Tory grandee remembers how close he came to being killed.

He said: "Those guys were real heroes. They were not football or cricket players, they were proper heroes."

Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Reece, who arrived at the seafront within minutes, described the scene as "mayhem."

He said: "There was a likelihood of the hotel collapsing and there were still people in the hotel."

Asked how he felt inside when watching the catastrophe unfold, he said: "Turmoil, I suppose.

"I worried about the people inside as to whether they were going to be safe or not."

The emergency services seemed unprepared for the scale of the disaster that faced them.

Firefighters ran out of ropes and used sheets stripped from beds to pull people up out of the wreckage.

Rooms on nine floors had been destroyed as the politicians slept in their beds.

The bomb was detonated at 2.54am and fire crews, paramedics and police worked through the night to save lives.

Retired firefighter Fred Bishop remembers getting the first emergency call and heading to The Grand.

He said: "On the way down to the incident the lads made a joke of it, saying someone had broken the fire alarm to get Margaret Thatcher out of bed in the cold at 3am.

"I basically said to the guys, 'I'm going in to see who needs help, you can volunteer if you want to come in with me or you can stay outside'. All the guys said, 'We're going in with you'."

Ken Towner was among the firefighters who went in despite the obvious dangers.

He said: "As we searched the rooms, we were confronted with this massive hole.

"It was just open, looking over the West Pier, and the moon was shining across the water.

"The bells kept ringing although there was no fire.

"There was water cascading down from the split water tanks. There were cables ricocheting and sparking their way round."

David Norris was also in the fire service at the time.

He said: "When we got out there we found ourselves overlooking this great hole, this chasm, and, about 10ft down, a pile of rubble. Someone was crying out for help."

Harvey Thomas was among those saved by the emergency crews.

Norman Tebbit and his wife, Margaret, were also rescued, as was Lady Sarah Berry.

Mr Thomas said: "I was suspended over the chasm.

"People say, 'Did you panic?' but the reality is you cannot panic because you need space to panic.

"I thought, 'What's going to happen to my wife and our unborn baby?'. I didn't want them to be left without a father.

"I could hear the electric cables sizzling and then I heard voices.

"I could not take a breath because I had this crushing weight on my chest.

"My eyes were sealed closed by the rubble and muck.

"Finally someone heard me and said, 'Quiet, quiet, there's someone down there'."

Sir Donald Maclean, the chairman of the party in Scotland, was also trapped in the building.

He was one of the people saved by Brighton surgeon Dr David Skidmore, who was called out to the bomb site.

Dr Skidmore said. "I ran up to the big ornate staircase to where I could hear people screaming and shouting high up in the building."

Sir Donald was trapped under rubble between huge girders hanging dangerously over the edge.

Dr Skidmore said: "I did mountain rescue several years ago so I was not particularly worried about heights of that sort.

"Donald Maclean was down there somewhere so we had to get down to him.

"For all I know he could have been hanging on by his nails so as soon as we had enough rubble clear of his chest, we got a safety rope around him.

"Pushing from below, we were able to get him to the top of the cliff, as it were."

Looking back now and watching the television footage of the dramatic rescue, Sir Donald realises just how heroic an effort it was.

He said: "By hard work and sheer determination they pulled me up - by sheer strength they hauled me up."

The bomb planted by the IRA active service unit headed by Patrick Magee was aimed at killing Margaret Thatcher.

But the prime minister survived unscathed - and apparently unshaken.

Mr Reece remembers seeing her "fresh as a daisy" as he left the building.

Her personal chauffeur, Dennis Oliver, picked her up from the seafront hotel and rushed her to safety at a nearby police station.

He said: "I've never seen anyone look so calm in my life.

"Her very words when I asked her if she was okay were, 'I cannot understand why this has never happened before'."

An investigation was launched to discover how a well-known IRA terrorist was able to walk into The Grand and plant a bomb with the potential to kill the entire British Cabinet.

Sussex Police were cleared of any blame but secret documents which have now come to light reveal the force does admit failings.

A briefing paper was prepared based on the lessons learnt to prevent any such atrocity taking place again.

Detective Sergeant Alan Neil, Sussex Police protection officer, said: "There were failings of intelligence because the bomb went off.

"Some timers had been found in this country nine months before the conference.

"I would have expected Margaret Thatcher to be the main target and she would be here in Brighton.

"The very important people, the Press right in place - it was a perfect opportunity for a terrorist."