WATER MAIN BURSTS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 144, 16 December 1930, Page 11

WATER MAIN BURSTS

DAMAGE IN WEST END

UNDERGROUND FLOODED

(British Offldal Wlreleis.) (Received 16th December, 11 a.m.) EUGBY, 15th December. A severe dislocation of traffic both in the streets and on the underground railways and serious damage to business property, besides the interruption of telephone and electric light services in the immediate district, -were caused by the bursting of a twenty-four-inch water main at the corner of Oxford street and Tottenham Court road this morning, just as city workers were- | arriving from the suburbs. The flood forced up the wooden paving blocks and, spreading in all directions, poured I into basements of buildings and down elevators to the tube station platforms, where the water was soon some feet deep. The extent of the damage cannot yet be estimated, but it is feared that the foundations of tho roadway and the auper-structure of the underground station, are affected. Shops in the whole area anticipate heavy losses in the Christmas trade. A gas main explosion two years ago, when many streets were closed for months, took place a few hundred yards from tho scene of to-day's accident. It is- expected that the underground services will be normal to-morrow.