THE SCENE IN TOWN.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 95, 22 April 1908, Page 7

THE SCENE IN TOWN.

IDENTIFYING THE DEAD.

GRIEF-STRICKEN RELATIVES.

MELBOURNE, 21sfc April. /

During the morning little or no information could be gleaned as to the identity of tho killed, the work of identification being greatly hindered bj the manner in which the bodies were mixed vp — almost inextricably — with tho debris of tho shattered carriages.

The officials at the Sunshine station had to leave the task of singling out tho dead to be done by relatives, when the first mortuary traia arrived at the Spencer-street station (the city terminus of the Ballarat and Bendigo lines).

Meantime an army of cabs had arrived at- the station, waggons were drawn lip in readiness, doctors, nurses, and ambulance men were waiting to render aid, while anxious friends, patiently standing about in groups, all made up a weird picture in the dim moonlight.

The bodies, as they l»y ranged round tho walls of tho Spencer-street station, presented an awful spectacle. Tho majority woro shockingly mutilated.

In tho course of identification some heartrending scenes were witnessed, and ifc was pitiful to sco griof-stricken'rela-tives led away as their sad business was ended. As soon as the identifications Wore completed, the bodies were placed in coffins, and removed for burial.

TERRIBLE NATURE OF THE INJURIES.

In some cases the injuries wore bo terrible that the doctors had to administer morphia und strychnin© beforo the wounds could bo dressed. The wounds in tho majority of cases woro very serious, more than tho usual percentage consisting of fractured limbs, shattered hips and thighs, and injuries to tho spine, in addition to tho . inevitable shock.

There were about sixty victims in tho first relief -train— eight of them dead. The tecond toliof brought thirty2A# cipad &ftd plevofl xauiadfld?

Very few of the sufferers were in a condition to be sent to their homes. One particularly bad case was that of a man with a fractured thigh, who had nearly bled to death. There were a great many fractured legs, arms, hips, and thighs, while in some cases the eyes of victims had been put out.

The sights which met the gaze of anxious spectators as tho first relief train began to discharge its freight

were enough to touch the stoutest heart with their pathos and tragedy, the spectacle suggesting a battlefield with its tale of victims-

First aid had been rendered at Sunshine, and broken limbs were in splints, and bruised heads in bandages. Some of the victims were apparently unconscious, some showed the livid pallor of death in their countenances, the faces of some were covered with blood, and here and 'there a poor broken head showed through an extemporised hankkerchief bandage.

Pathetic groans broke from the lips of some of tho worst cases as they wero lifted into stretchers, giving cvidenco of the intense pain ,that was being endured.