AIR RAIDS ON HELSINKI

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22883, 2 December 1939, Page 13

AIR RAIDS ON HELSINKI

Capital Ablaze In Many Places PARENTS SEARCH FOR CHILDREN (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 2, 12.10 a.m.) LONDON, December 1. Helsinki to-night is ablaze with fires from incendiary bombs, which have broken the total black-out. Rescue work is progressing rapidly. The population is completely calm, although harrassed parents are frantically searching for their children. It is believed that at least 200 were killed in a third air raid on the main railway station, which was crowded with women and children preparing to evacuate the capital. Wiipuri is also burning in several parts, and air-raid sirens were sounded in Turku, Finland’s second largest city, as the roar of high-flying aeroplanes was detected. The Government announced that it was remaining In the capital to fight with the people. Twenty buildings were still ablaze in Helsinki at midnight. All trains are jammed and a vast pilgrimage on foot is in progress to the snow-covered woods. The damage in Helsinki from bombs is extensive. The Polytechnic College, one of the city’s finest buildings, was destroyed and several large blocks of flats were wrecked. Most of the bombs fell in the southwest quarter of the city, where an area embracing 12 streets is ablaze. Windows were shattered for a radius of a mile. It is unofficially estimated that several hundred were killed and wounded in a 15-minute raid at 2.45 p.m. Many passengers were blown to bits when an omnibus was struck at a station by a bomb. The Helsinki correspondent of the British United Press states that he was blown off his feet in a hotel during the second air raid in which the centre of the capital was bombed, the Russians apparently aiming at the railway station. The correspondent counted 14 bombs. One wrecked the huge glass dome of the Hotel Torni near the station. The citizens of Helsinki calmly returned to work after a second air raid and the shops reopened. The compulsory evacuation of Helsinki will probably be ordered. Large numbers are already leaving. Leaflets dropped by the. raiders declared; “Mannerheim must go. Then peace will come. The Soviet will not harm the Finnish people whose disaster is due, to wrong leadership.” , Members of the Soviet Legation are still in the city. It is believed they will be held as hostages until members of the Finnish Legation in Moscow return. It is estimated that 10 Russian aeroplanes were shot down during the day. „ The numbers of Russian aeroplanes participating in the raids have been comparatively small. The largest unit, which- numbered 20, attacked Wiipuri. Aeroplanes attempted to bomb the Sveaborg fortress, but were driven off. r The Finnish Ministry of Defence reports that two Soviet aeroplanes were shot down, one near Helsinki. The damage to Helsinki airport was small.