BOMB EXPLOSION

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 57, 9 March 1942, Page 5

BOMB EXPLOSION

Accomplice Takes Refuge In

Russian Consulate

TURKISH POLICE INQUIRY

Rec. 11 a.m.

LONDON, March 8

An Ankara communique dealing with the efforts to trace those implicated in the bomb explosion which was intended for von Papen, the German Ambassador, states that the Istanbul police last Thursday night surrounded the Russian Consulate whither one accomplice had fled. Police issued an ultimatum that unless the man was handed over by midnight on Saturday, action would be taken. Two members of the Russian commercial mission were arrested at Ankara. They stated that an attempt on the life of von Ribbentrop was also planned in the event of his visiting Sofia.

The police cordon around the Russian Consulate at Istanbul was lifted after two men had been handed over to the police, states a later message.

It is believed that the Russian Consulate at Istanbul may be closed and the withdrawal of the Russian commercial mission be sought.

The Ankara correspondent of the British United Press stated that 50 persons of many nationalities had been arrested in a raid on centres frequented by refugees.

An earlier message stated that it had been officially established that the bomb was Intended for von Papen. The thrower was Omer Tokat, a Yugoslavian, who became a naturalised Turk last year.

The bomb explosion which occurred on February 24 knocked von Papen and his wife to the ground, but did not injure either of them. Just before the explosion a man was seen walking in the opposite direction to the Nazi Ambassador. He was carrying an object wrapped in rags, believed to be a bomb. Von Papen and his wife returned to the Embassy, suffering only from shock.