FOUR SHOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 74, 29 March 1938, Page 5

FOUR SHOT.

FARMHOUSE " SIEGE." |! I. TROUBLE OVER £1 6/8. j! I. FAMILY WOULD NOT PAY. A widow. Mmo. C'ornucl. and one of her two sons were shut dead after a ."?()- liour Sidney Street "siege" of their farm house near La Fleche. 170 miles, south-west of Paris. The other son] escaped from the blazing building. Fifty gendarmes launched a gas bomb! 'and dynamite attack after a police chief land a locksmith had been shot dead! Itrving to eject the (_'<>rnuels. ! ■ ! j Cause of the trouble was £1 0/8. (which the family-—peasant farmers—re-l ! fused to pay when the income tax col ] 'lector called. j j The collector Munitioned gendarmes! and a young locksmith from the town. ! But all attempts to persuade the farmers t<> open" the door were useless. When l-'aucheux tried t<> force the lock, the door was suddenly flung open i from within and lie was shot through ~the heart. He died as lie was dragged iout by the police. Reinforcements armed with tear gas ibombs. revolvers and bullet-proof shields I were rushed to the scene, and throughout the night police kept watch with | j searchlights trained <>n the house. . j Next day the besiegers closed in. gen- . darmes clambered oil the roof, broke a ]liole through the tiles and attempted to : i force a gas hose into the room below. Jwhen that failed gas bombs and stick? .jof flaming sulphur were thrown down ;' the chimney. j Windows Stuffed. t | Smoke and flame burst from the win } I flows, which had been stuffed with sack ,ing from outside. jl Kven when the order was given t< r explode the dynamite along one wall • and bricks and mortar crashed down s 1 1he family refused to give in. P 1 Inspector Pascarel decided to make i -Jlast attempt at negotiations. As hi [went forward to epeak through u cracl

which had been opened in the door the barrel of a shotgun suddenly appeared. He was shot dead. Finally flames reached the centre of the house and the Cornuels attempted escape. One of the brothers ran out carrying a rifle. A policeman took aim at him but his rifle jammed and the mar I escaped. j The other brother then dashed out— but he was shot down in the glare of tin flames. Madame Cornuel followed, her haii and clothing alight. She ran only 2« yards before police bullets struck he and she fell dead. ! The Sidney Street. Stepney, siege, be Igan on January 3. l'.lll. whfcn I'ete :the Painter and his gang of auarchi-t —wanted for the murder of thre 'policemen—were tracked down. Police called on them to surrender [the only answer was a fusillade i j which a police chief was fatall . wounded. .! For five hours 1000 police and ad< jtachment of Scots (Juards fired at tl barricaded house—directed by M Winston Churchill, then Home Secretai j— and eventually it caught fire. Bodii jof two men were found among the ruii j—the other men. including Peter tl Painter, had vanished.