ATTACK WITH PETROL

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 71, 21 September 1936, Page 9

ATTACK WITH PETROL

TOLEDO LOYALISTS

CITADEL HOLDS OUT

REBEL BRAVERY

EFFORTS FOR ARMISTICE

United Press Association—B.v Electric Telegraph—Copyright. (Received September 21, 11.45 a.m.) LONDON, September 20. The loyalist attack on the alcazar at Toledo was savagely resumed. The defenders are doggedly maintaining possession of the shapeless mass of granite, which was once a magnificent citadel. The Government accounts for its failure to subdue it by stating that 'the principal mine failed to explode. Following their failure the besiegers decided to employ fire hoses to drench the citadel with petrol and then ignite it, forcing the occupants to choose between surrender and incineration. ATTACKERS DRIVEN OFFFire brigade hoses poured streams of petrol over the occupied parts of the alcazar, and then ignited it with bombs. A huge sheet of flame enshrouded the former headquarters of the military governor, which a strong force of rebels had recaptured. The Government forces vainly tried to expel .them, being-driven back by enormous clouds of thick, choking gmoke from the burning petrol. One rebel, braving the hail of bullets, rushed out and grabbed a hose from a fireman's hand and turned the stream of petrol on the attackers. He held the hose while Government supporters poured bullets into him till he fell dead. Then a party of insurgents made a desperate sortie in the teeth of a heavy fusillade, many being killed and wounded before a retirement was made. TO SAVE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. The Diplomatic Corps in Madrid is trying to obtain an armistice at the alcazar to save the women and children. The Chilean Ambassador suggests that an armistice of 24 hours will save the lives of 900 women and children. An insurgent broadcast from Cadiz claims that the cruisers Almirante Cervera and Espana engaged the Libertad and another Government cruiser which were trying to raise the blockade of Bilbao and Gijon, and sank both. ( The alcazar at Toledo, which in recent years has been a military academy, stands on a hill dominating Toledo. The Romans erected a stronghold there which the Visigoths used as a citadel. Kings afterwards used the building as a castle, and enlarged it. It was burned down in the civil war of 1710, and a new building was burned by the French in 1810. It was restored, but was again burned in 1887.