FIRE PANIC.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 92, 7 June 1912, Page 8

FIRE PANIC.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN KILLED. Seven persons were killed and many, injured in a panic through an alarm of fire at a concert given by the League of Patriotic Frenchwomen at Houdain, in Southern France, the other night. The concert was held on the first floor of a cafe. A lamp fell suddenly to the floor, the oil spreading and catching fire. There was a rush for the door giving access to the staircase leading down to a cafe. Though two of the spectators easily extinguished the flames and shouted to the people to remain seated, the audience was deaf to their entreaties. Amid screams from women and children the spectators struggled down the staircase, a number of children being knocked down and trampled on. When the panic had subsided the bodies of two old women and five little girls, whose ages ranged from six to 12 years, were found in the concert-room and on the staircase. The injured were nearly all women and children.