SCENES AT THE BUSTCHUK EXPLOSION.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2280, 11 November 1897, Page 19

SCENES AT THE BUSTCHUK EXPLOSION.

SPECTATORS PETRIFIED BY HORROR.

A dramatic account by an eye-witness of the explo»ion »f' Bustohuk on August 6, which claimed close on 200 victims, is telegraphed by the Standard's Paris correspondent. At halfpasb 2 o'clock in the afternoon/ jusb at the moment when the Prince of Bulgaria, returning from Baoharesb, Reached the Bulgarian bank of the Danube, a formidable explosion was heard from a place at about two kilometres front Uustchuk, opposite Giorgevo. .Immediately' afterwards a -thick cloud of smoke covered the town. It was at 'first thought that some out* rage had been committed, but ttie'.news soon •pread that 'a million of cartridges and" an immense quantity, of gunpowder, which the • Government had recently sold to Iran'of Bros., had exploded i Erery,oue ran to the scene of, the accident, situated on a hillock at about 100' metrns from the Danube. ", The eje-witnesa ran oribh the rest. He describes what he saw a3 f .lIOYTS . We met first somo of those who had escaped from the catastrophe. - They looked 'us with haggard eye*, and could scarcely speak. All of them were. a« black a» coal ; several com; pUWy naked. Some of. them fell, never to rise to their feet again. , Then came a young girl, whose- clothes and bair were-burujng. She fell to the ground also, with her fa'oe to the earth, hey body wribbing with agony. Another young girl resisted when attempts were made to tear her burning clothei off her. Bhe also fell and died. Soon the corpoes became more numerou». Here there are five, eight, a dozen, a (core. Numbsr* of the victims, with their clothes abUze. ran headlong to the Danube, jumped blindly into ib, and were carried away by the current. After a time the cries bsc&me lest piercing and le«s*fceq'uent- Death had already slmo>t completed its work. All the spectators who h*d run to the rescue remained petrified with horror, not knowing which of the injured persons to help first. In the meanwhile the fire continued to blaze,' The firemen arrived, but i% was i-npos&ible to organiie the rescue of the victims. The iojared people continued tfe crawl aboub on the ground crying for water.

A TERRIBLE SPECTACLE.

Within * radius of several metres round the burning rnina the ground was thick wibh carbonised, ahrivelled-up, corpses.' 'Hera and there were arms,' legs, beads, bands, offering a terrible spectacle.' - For the mom«afc no one ] dared approach too nearly the' scene of the accident fearing a second explosion. Only 10 metres off is a* magazine, which contained ab the time several tons of powder. ' If a sparkh%d found its Way into it the spectators would have pemb/cT. Nothing remained of- the cartridge factory but a few blackened support: ing posts, The bodies lay in heaps ; some of the unfortunate creatures still moved in the la«t convulsions of death. Prom time to time a gust of wind swept away the smoke from the heaps of the burned and burning bodies. One boy, apparently 13 years of age, was seen crawling on all form, falling and knocking against, bodies, and shrieking with p»i«, for his body waa still one mass or' fUmes. He, too, fell on his face, never to rise' again. In the meantime the firemen were playing on the tains . and bodies scattered all over the place. - The authorities arrived on the spot, but without. any appliances or reqnisite* to minister to the injured. Several of the workpeople who had been blown into the air by the explosion and had escaped with bruises only, ran about panic-stricken in all directions. The crowd continued increasing incessantly. Carbe and carriages of every "description were requisitioned to convey the injared people to the hospital iv the town. Most of them died on the way, though the diibance was but short. .flfosfe of the victims were young people from 10 to 20 years of age. They worked for wages varying from 50 to 80 centimes a day, and their occupation consisted in emptying the carbridgea and separating the powder and bullets. 16 appears that* to, prevent them from stealing these workpeople were looked ia the factory and searched before leaving in the evening. This fact led to the -loss of numerous lives, of persons who had not been killed by the expla* sion, but who were burned, to .death because they could nob get out of, the building. On landing, Prince Ferdinand, being informed of the catastrophe, went immediately to visit the injared people. Most of the victims are Armor Bian refugees.

The tre&snrer of the Free Kindergarten Association acknowledges receipt of the follow* ing subacriptiops .- — Mrs Sinclair, £1 l» ; Mwt Dennistooj 10« ; Mm Hocken, ss,