CASUALTIES 150

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 133, 8 June 1942, Page 5

CASUALTIES 150

LONDON EXPLOSION

Undetected Unexploded Bomb

Causes Disaster

United Press Association.—Copyright. Rec. noon. LONDON, June 7. Twenty-eight people are dead anc missing and over 100 were injured when a tremendous explosion occurred in Gurney Street, near the Ele pliant and Castle, South London. The Ministry of Home Security, in a later communique, states that it has been ascertained that the Southwark explosion was due to an undetected and unexploded bomb. The casualties in the explosion are now officially estimated to be 150. Nineteen bodies have been recovered. It is believed that one woman has iost all'of her six children. Under dim flares more than CiOO men, women and children worked throughout the night searching for victims still entombed under the wreckage. These include at least 10 children. The explosion made a crater 120 ft across and 20ft deep, at the heart of what was once a three-storey building. Not one family in the whole of Gurney Street escaped without loss. A later report states that rescuers worked throughout the night to clear the roadway of debris and discovered the crushed bodies of six children. The blast of the explosion affected about 200 houses, while five three-storey buildings at one spot crumpled.