MANY KILLED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 61, Issue 3, 15 October 1940, Page 5

MANY KILLED

ENGLISH TOWNS RAIDED. VICTIMS BURIED IN DEBRIS. ALL NIGHT WORK OF RESCUE. (United Press Association— Copyright.) (Received This Day, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, October 14. A London public house was bombed last night and the majority of those killed and injured were in the public bar. The rescuers were hampered by escaping gas. They worked all night extxacating victims. An oil boJBb destroyed parts of a hospital, including the operating theatre. The staff put out the flames. The patients were all evacuated to-day. An explosive falling in the grounds of the same hospital demolished three houses, the occupants of which were sheltering and were not injured. A bomb striking the middle of a block of flats killed a number of the tenants who were sheltering in. the basement, on which tons of debris crashed down.

Flats on either side were cut in half. Mobile cranes were used in recovering the bodies.

Bombs hit a row of cottages. in the Homo Countries area. Two people were killed and 13 injured. A Salvation Army Citadel in the London area was wrecked last night. Five thousand members of the Pioneer Corps set out this morning to clear up the London air raid wreckage. Heavy gunfire was heard in the London district during the first alert today. The anti-aircraft defences went into action against a large four-engined bomber which was seen high over a London suburb. The raider was dropping bombs as it dived. It was reported later that it crashed on open ground.

Isolated bombers attacked towns in the Thames Estuary, the Midlands and the Home Counties this afternoon, demolishing business premises and houses and causing some casualties. A plane attacking a Thames Estuary town caught hundreds of shoppers napping. It dropped five bombs on the residential districts, demolishing five' houses. It is believed that many residents were buried. Five bombs fell in a west of Scotland town this morning, three of which were of the delayed action type, necessitating the evacuation of 200 families from their homes. There were no casualties and little damage from the others.