TRAGIC FLIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 142, 17 June 1937, Page 10

TRAGIC FLIGHT

BASQUE CIVILIANS

INVESTING OF BILBAO

10,000 PRISONERS

ORGY OF BLOODSHED AND

DESTRUCTION

United Press Association—By Electric "I 4&

graph—Copyright. (Received June 17, 2.10 p.m.)

LONDON, June 16.

Amid an orgy of bloodshed* carnage, and destruction, and ilia tragic flight of Basque civilians, General Franco's encircling movement against Bilbao progressed todayafter tlie capture of Galdacano, southwest of the city, which cost the Basques 2000 casualties. The insurgents found the streets of Galdacano filled with the debris of weeks—wrecked houses, corpses, dead mules, broken glass, and sandbags. The defenders sacked the town and dynamited an explosive factory, before their departure.

The insurgents claim that 10,000 prisoners have been taken since tht "iron belt" was broken.

Perhaps the most significant news is the number of people fleeing from Bilbao. It is estimated that over 20,000 people have reached Santander from Bilbao in the past few days.

The correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" at Derio says that a mixed brigade of Italians and Spaniards occupied Algorta, on the eastern flank of the Bilbao estuary, and effectively closed the harbour entrance. The Las Arenas Bridge over the estuary, * gigantic structure which cost £500,000, was blown up by retreating Asturiaa miners.