BOMB WRECKED LINER

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 11

BOMB WRECKED LINER

(N Z.P.A -Reuter—Copyright)

LONDON April 1 A planted bomb was blamed for the explosion and fire which sank the British liner Para and killed 236 people in the Persian Gulf last April, by the official inquiry which concluded today The Comnwoner of Wrecks <Mr J. V Natsbyi said that formal investigation found that it was 'practically certain” that the explosive—of a type used n anti-tank mines was deliberately placed by an unknown person or persons They had no conclusive

evidence as to who was responsible, he said. , The 5030-ton liner was sailing to Bombay from Dubai, the princ i>al port of 1 the Trucial Oman, with 819 passengers and crew, mostly Indians. Pakistanis Gulf Arabs. Americans and Britons, when she blew up The explosion blasted i : hole six feet by tour feet in ! the engine room cutting off < al! electric power and steer mg gear. Mr Naisry said ' Smoke and flames shot up tike a torch, rnd spread : extremely rapidly engulfing : most of the starboard life- ’ boats and causing a ’mad ■ scramble" to the remaining i boat§ • I

The loss of lives resulted partly from the explosion and partly from .the fire, which suffocated an unknown number of people and prevented most of the boats being launched. One cause of confusion and the reason why most passengers were net wearing life-jackets was that many could not read and others had not bothered to look at the emergency regulations How to deal with pas sengers of many languages and dialects in an emergency was a great problem. Mr Naisby said The court

recommended consideration of how this could be overcome.