RECENT RAIL SMASHES

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 95, 19 October 1931, Page 7

RECENT RAIL SMASHES

TRAIN-WRECKER CONFESSES

MENTALITY QUERIED

VIENNA, 17th October.

A Hungarian merchant, Sylvester Matusehke,1 has been arrested in connection with the wreck of; the Budapest express on 13th September.

It is reported that he has confessed also to the wrecking of the Basle-Berlin express on 10th August, and that he attempted to wreck an Austrian express last winter. .

Ho says that he perpetrated all the: outrages alone and had designed similar attempt*' in. the near future on lines near Amsterdam, Paris, and Ventimiglia on the Biviera near the FrancoItalian frontier."

The police believe,that the confession is reliable. Matuschke is not a Communist, but his mental condition - may be examined. '

On 13th September the Cologne-Buda-pest express was wrecked ton miles from Budapest. Twenty-five were killed, including two Englishwomen. A viaduct collapsed after the engine and two coaches passed over safely. The remaining coaches crashed into a ravine 100 feet deep. Eescuers were forced to descend by ropes.

On 9th August three passengers were seriously injured and 16 slightly hurt by an attempt to blow up the BasleBerlin express. The driven while passing Juterbog station, near Berlin, heard a noise and immediately, applied the brakes in an attempt to stop. Before he was able to do so seven coaches, with passenger compartments, luggage van, and dining car wero derailed, falling down a bank.