INQUIRY OPENS AT FREJUS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29071, 7 December 1959, Page 13

INQUIRY OPENS AT FREJUS

Mass Vaccination Of Survivors

(N.Z. Press Assoctation—CopyrtgM)

(Rec. 10 p.m.) • FREJUS, December 5. Mobile units are to begin an immediate mass vaccination programme against typhoid fever in the Frejus disaster area. This was announced today after the first meeting at Frejus of the five Cabinet Ministers who opened an inquiry into the catastrophe.

All people in the disaster area are to be compulsorily vaccinated, but the Health Minister, Mr Bernard Chenot, said there was no sign of an epidemic. Earlier, the grim-faced Ministers had inspected the floodstricken Reyran river valley and stood silently at the cemetery where open graves await more victims of the Malpasset dam disaster.

The helicopters bringing in the Ministerial investigators from Paris landed shortly after weary rescue workers began their third day of probing in silt and debris for those still missing.

The four Ministers drove to a villa to begin their discussions on the disaster with the Prefect, Mr Rochereau, and local officials. Later, they visited some of the scenes of devastation. 257 Bodies Recovered

By mid-morning today, 257 bodies had been recovered, i. was officially announced. Semi-official estimates said more than 200 persons were still missing. The Ministers will fly back to Paris this evening to report to President de Gaulle. It is thought possible that he may visit Frejus after studying the Ministers’ report. Housing is to be requisitioned for the homeless in addition to the prefabricated dwellings being sent from Paris today. A bill will be tabled in Parliament next week authorising compensation for those who lost their homes tn the tragedy. • The Ministers announced that the commission inquiring into the causes of the dam collapse would start work today and make a report within two months. The findings would be made public.

The Public Prosecutor announced last night that he had instituted legal proceedings

“against X” in connexion with the disaster—the normal French procedure for opening a criminal investigation. The 10,000 soldiers, sailors, and police in the rescue squads, who have been searching through the wreckage of the town for two days and nights, stopped work yesterday as darkness fell. It was their first real break since the dam burst They will start work again at dawn today. At a mass funeral yesterday, 135 victims were buried in communal graves. Those identified last night included a whole Algerian family—father, mother, and nine children. Financial help and messages of sympathy have been streaming in from all over the world and by last night officials said about £500,000 had been collected by public subscription for relief work. Search for Bodies British United Press said 40 frogmen of the French Navy will start diving this morning into a huge muddy pool formed in the Reyran estuary, searching for bodies. The pool, full of debris from the devastated town, was formed by the 50 million tons of water which poured out of the Malpasset lake when the dam broke. Navy helicopters, straining against the mistral—the wind constantly blowing over southern France—are hovering over the surface of the sea searching for victims floating on the surface. Preliminary estimates put the cost of the damage in the Frejus valley and town at about £2O million. Another £700,000 would be needed for rebuilding the naval air base. It may take as long as 10 years to rebuild the orchards which have made Frejus famous since Roman times.