NAPLES A FOOT DEEP IN CINDERS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 86, 10 April 1906, Page 5

NAPLES A FOOT DEEP IN CINDERS.

150,000 ABE TAKING REFUGE IN THE TOWN-

FIVE LOSE THEIR LIVES AND OTHERS INJTJRED.

THE GREATEST ERUPTION SINCE THE TEAR 1831.

(Received 9.3 a.m.)

ROME, April 9. No less than 150,000 refugees have now arrived In Naples from the threatened villages. Naples itself is one foot deep in cinder, discharged form the volcano at the height of the eruption. Five inhabitants of Torre dell' Annnnziata were for some reason unable to make their escape, and were engulphed in the great river of lava. Eighteen others were severely injured before they could be saved, and all of them had narrow escapes. Otherwise there is little loss of life. The lava is not only flowing south to Torre dell' Annunziata, but later reports show that a stream' of seven feet in depth flowed over the village of Ottogiano, to the north-east. The flow generally is now undergoing marked diminution. The present eruption is declared to be the greatest since the outbreak of December 17, 1631, when Torre del Greco was destroyed with 4,000 persons. The King and Queen of Italy were taking a drive in a motor car in the vicinity of Vesuvius when the outbreak reached its height. The shower of ashes was very heavy, and darkened the atmosphere for twenty miles from the crater.