THOUSANDS KILLED

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22906, 30 December 1939, Page 9

THOUSANDS KILLED

Earthquakes In 5 Anatolia FURTHER SHOCKS INDICATED * (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION— COFTSIOBT-J (Received December 29, 11.30 pjn.J LONDON, December 29. The earthquake in Anatolia partly or completely wrecked 12 provincial towns, each with between 15,000 and 40,000 inhabitants, besides 80 villages. Numbers were trapped in the ruins without hope of assistance. The full extent of the disaster is unlikely to be learned for some time. Telephone communication between Anatolia and western capitals is again cut off. indicating further shocks, two of which were recorded by seismograph at 3.28 p.m. The estimate of 40,000 victims is not confirmed, but other sources say there are 8000 dead. The President of Turkey (General Inonu) went to the scene in order to take over the direction of rescue work. Thousands who fled to the fields were frozen to death. A relief* expedition battled through a blizzard along moun- * tain roads and railways in the hope of aiding victims of pneuir'nia and typhoid which are z'rczdy spreading.. The entire northern stretch of Anatolia is strewn with debris, among which lie countless dead. Whole families were crushed while they were in bed. Those who escaped were trapped in the. streets and burned alive in conflagrations caused by broken . mains and burst oil lamps, because of the absence of fire-fighting equipment. The town of Erzindjaa was a mass of burning ruins after the earlier shocks. Every large building collapsed. There were 953 killed and 443 injured at Tokat. A tempest in the Black Sea before the first tremor tore ships from their moorings and battered down homes, many of which were swept to sea with their screaming occupants. - The centre of the earthquake is believed to -be the Janik mountains, which rise to 10,000 feet. The Ankara correspondent of the Associated Press of Great Britain states that officials estimate that 42,000 were killed and injured in the town of Erzindjan alone. The town has been destroyed. Relief parties with medical and food supplies are being mobilised, but damage to the roads makes travel difficult. The Turkish Parliament has. held a special session to appeal for relief. The earthquake in San Salvador. Central America, did little damage to property and there were no deaths. Contrary to previous reports there was no earthquake yesterday in Tangier. Twenty-five earthquake tremors shook the Rand in the last 24 hours, according to a message ’from Cape Town. Two very severe tremors shook buildings, causing panic among the natives.