A THRILLING ACCOUNT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13336, 30 January 1909, Page 9

A THRILLING ACCOUNT.

SCENES OF INDESCRIBABLE HORROR. A young doctor at Messina, named Aliotto Rossi, tells the following story : —"I rose early on Monday morning, intending to leave Messina by the early train. It was still dark, and I was waiting ready to start when tlio profound silence which precedes tho dawn was broken by an extraordinary noise. I can best describe it as like the bursting of a .thousand bombs. This was followed by a rushing torrential rain, then thero was a sinister whistling as if thousands of red-hot iron rods were hissing in icy water. I did not realise what was happening until suddenly the viojleiat rhythmic movements of tho surrounding walls mado mc realise ...the awful fact that an earthquake was in progress. Around mo splintered glass fell thickly, -4 roof burst, giving off thick clouds ol choking dust, which added to tho horror of the situation, while the grouhd was shaken by an extraordinary double movement, as if rising and falling, which had the peculiar effect of making mc imagine I had been suddenly taken ill. For the moment I was in a dazed condition till tho thunder of falling stones from the crumbling walls made mc realise that if I was to escape with my life there was not a moment to bt> lost. I rushed into tho room where my mother and sister slept, and suoceedod, with the help of some strong cord, in rescuing not only them, but thirty-six other people in tho dwelling, who had given themselves up for lost Then, with the help of somo passing soldiers, I dragged out several women and children from under the tottering walls of half-destroyed palaces, which soon after came down with a crash. There were scenes of indescribable horror. It was difficult to see in the dust-laden half-darkness, but at every turn one could- not help noticing the ghastly spectacle of human limbsticking out from tho mass of ruins. Frenzied relatives, with t bare_ bleeding hands, sought to dig out dear ones from under tho fallen masonry, often tho walls which had not altogether collapsed camo down suddenly and buried them with their dead relatives in a common grave. All the while shrieks and irm:ree_tions wero heard from the miserablo raving fugitives, who rushed, half-naked and bleeding through the streets, appearing like spectres in the lurid atmosphere, which had begun to be lit up by the fires which broke out in the ruins. The water pipes having been broken our sufferings were intensified by the lack of drinking water.* AVo were driven to assuage the burning thirst by rinsing our mouths with sea water, wherewith wo washed even our wounds. All this time a most furious rain storm, which came down like a waterspout, was deluging the ruins. Finally xro succeeded in reaching the English steamer Ebro."

Most of tho fugitives who havo given accounts of the catastrophe were too much under the impression of terror at the time, and too full of their agonised search for relatives who were lost, to give any detailed narratives.