FRENCH TRAIN SMASH

Evening Star, Issue 19839, 12 April 1928, Page 6

FRENCH TRAIN SMASH

COLLISION OUTSIDE PARIS STATION HEAVY LOSS OF LIFE LEADING COACHES TELESCOPED I Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright PARIS, April 11. (Received April 12, at 11.30 a.m.) Fourteen people were killed or died of injuries, and many were injured in a collision between the train to Amiens with a local train outside the Gare Du Nord. The leading coaches were telescoped and splintered. Another was upended and rested on the buttress of a bridge. Firemen and rescuers are making an effort to release the injured.—Australian Press Association-United Service. A TERRIFIC CRASH J AGONISING SCENES PARIS, April 11. (Received April 12, at 1 p.m.) The latest reports state that sixteen people were killed and thirty-five injured, many critically. There were no British among the casualties. The express for Amiens had just left the station and was gathering speed when a local train switched over on to the same line, and the two met in a head-on collision at a speed of . twenty-five miles an hour. The crash was heard a mile distant, throwing the crowded station into an immediate panic. People rushed hither and thither endeavoring to reach the scene, while the screams of those injured in the collision rose above the noise of the escaping steam. The officials vainly endeavoured to restore order, but soon the wildly excited crowd was augmented by those running from tlie streets to investigate. The news spread throughout Paris, and thousands raced to the station in an endeavor to learn the details. The majority on board the local train were city workers returning from lunch at their suburban homes. —A us- , tralian Press Association. ■ DIFFICULT RESCUE WORK FRENZIED PASSENGERS P.ARIS, April 11. (Received April 12, at 1.15 a.m.) I The rescue work is most difficult in the drizzling rain. The coaches are embedded in one another, and the sides are rippd out. The engines are raised on end, forming a triangle with the track. A number of passengers were hurt through jumping wildly from the train on the first impact.—Australian Press Association-United Service. DRIVER ARRESTED PARIS, April 11. (Received April 12, at 1.5 p.m.) The driver of the Amiens train has been arrested lor passing the danger signal, but it is alleged that the signalman was partly to blame for placing the train on tbs wrong track. —Australian Press Association-United Service.