Late News 30 FEARED KILLED

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 140, 10 March 1941, Page 8

Late News 30 FEARED KILLED

Bomb Lands Among

Dancers TERRIBLE SCENES

London’s Heaviest Raid For Two Months

(Received March 10, 1.20 a.m.) (By Telegraph. — Cress Assn.—Copy right.) LONDON, March 9.

Thirty are feared to have been killed and many were seriously injured when a high-explosive bomb from a German raider burst among 150 dancers in a London restaurant. Rescuers worked for three hours extricating those buried in the debris.

An eye-witness said that at one moment the restaurant was thronged with a gay and carefree crowd of uniformed officers, their wives and friends. Then came a terrific explosion. The bomb came right through the building to the dance floor which received the whole force of the explosion.

Police, civilians, A.R.P. workers and soldiers celebrating Saturday night leave rushed to the wreckage and began to drag out girls in dance frocks, who were laid on the footpath till taken to hospital in ambulances or taxis. Women tore up handkerchiefs and even took pieces from their dresses to bind up the wounds of those more seriously injured. Soldiers used field dressings. Nurses were summoned and worked heroically. Several bandsmen and members of the staff were killed. A number of well-known figures in London’s smart set were among the casualties. The raiders iu continuous waves, swarmed up the Thames Estuary for hours and gave the capital the most intense and longest visitation for two months. Anti-aircraft guns put up a heavy barrage but the raiders swooped evasively. One dropped a whole planeload of bombs in an effort to escape the barrage. They demolished a number of houses and damaged otheres but nobody was killed. Four bombs fell iu adjoining streets, directly hitting a police station and an ambulance station. They killed four policemen and injured others. Fifteen ambulance workers had a remarkable escape. They had just left the canteen when two bombs sliced off its yvall. They were badly shaken but took out ambulances and rescued policemen from the debris. One policeman was killed as he reached the street after a period of firewatching on the roof. One explosive bomb fell iu a road and killed a number of pedestrians. Another killed a spotter on a roof and three people in a street below. Two bombs fell within 15 yards of each other in a roadway, causing huge craters.

A shower of incendiaries and flares were dropped but fire watchers were ready and promptly tackled the outbreaks, while machine-gunners shot down the flares. Raiders bombed a town on the south coast, also a south-east eoast town, with negligible results. One raider appeared badly damaged as it made its way homeward.