RAILWAY DISASTER IN PRANCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume III, Issue 522, 30 December 1881, Page 2

RAILWAY DISASTER IN PRANCE.

A slow passenger train from Montargis arrived at Charenton on the Lyons Railway, twelve minntes behind the time at which it was due. It was being shunted to allow the “ Lightning Express ” from Marseilles to pass, when the express train was approaching. Many of the passengers in the Montargis train saw it coming, and jumped out of the carriages. The driver started his engine, but the collision could not be avoided. The engine of the “ Lightning ” train dashed into the other, and smashed four of the carriages. For some minutes afterwards the wildest confusion prevailed; but the first fright over, the railway authorities began to organize relief. To extricate the victims was a labor of sometime. The shrieks of the injured rent the air, while their friends and fel low passengers gathered round, some weeping, others fainting, and all pale with fright and terror. Twelve dead bodies, fearfully mutilated, and about twenty injured were extricated from the wrecked carriages and conveyed to the waiting-room of the Charenton Station, where doctors were in attendance. As the work of rescue continued the victims were discovered to be more and more numerous. Nineteen persons, it is believed, were killed. The wounded are larger in number than the dead, and their injuries are, for the most part, very serious. They have been placed in the private houses, hospitals, and asylums of Charenton, and some, having been for a time kept at the station, were sent to Corbel. A few also elected to return to their homes in Paris in carriages. Of these, one, a woman, died on the way. One of the railway carriages, which was smashed ' to atoms, was occupied by a musical ! Society of La.Ferte d’Alais, which was i

on its way to Brighton. These persons were nearly all either killed or hurt. The dead include two young children, one a boy and the other a girl, who were not in the same carriage, and whose bodies have not yet been claimed. It is only too probable that their parents have shared their sad fate. Some of the bodies are so mutilated that identification will be difficult It was the slow train which furnished all the victims, the passengers of the “ Lightning Express” escaping with a severe shaking. In the latter train was the brother of the King of Siam and his suite, who were in no way hurt.