Terrific Explosion

Evening Star, Issue 20055, 21 December 1928, Page 7

Terrific Explosion

Haif a Mile of Roadway Blown Up

Ton Blocks Hurled Aside

Many Miraculous Escapes

Jre»a Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. . LONDON, December 20. (Received December 21;- at 11 a.m.) There was an extraordinary gas explosion at High Holborn at 8 o’clock this morning) when business men and women were coming into the city. Half a mile of roadway was torn up, the kerbstones were lifted like feathers, and pedestrians were flung into the air. A number of manholes exploded with n, noise resembling exploding bombs. Several Post Office workmen were seen lying in the mins of a manhole, which was ablaze when the explosion ended. The fire brigade ambulance was quickly on the spot, and the men were removed to hospital. It is astonishing that there was hot serious loss of life. A horse was killed, and a taxicab overturned. People were blown out of their beds in the neighbourhood. There were no fatalities, though there were many miraculous escapes. . Gas covered a wide area, which the police cleared. Several people on the outskirts were overcome by the fumes, and were taken to hospital. The underground railway was not affected. The police had difficulty in cleaving the streets of people, who believed that .the underground was blown up. The accident apparently originated through workmen using a blowing machine in laying cables. Deep fissures ran the whole way along tho line. Hugo craters were blown in tho roadway. Ton blocks of solid con-

Crete wore hurled aside. Shops were damaged, and parts of tho roadway dropped several feet. At one <voinfc the gas is still on fire. A water main burst, Hooding many basements. It appears that a linesman descended a manhole to connect a blower with a switch. A few minutes later a sheet of Homo rushed up. Tho man managed to scramble out with his trousers on fire. Ho was terribly burnt. —Australian Press Association-United Service. BUSINESS AT A STANDSTILL. WORST EXPLOSION IN BRITAIN'S HISTORY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, December 20. (Received December 21, at 11.5 a.m.) Britain has not known anything to equal the explosion. A district of a mile long and half a mile wide will be deprived of every, public service for some weeks. The traffic dislocation is tho worst in London’s history. Business is at a standstill. Repairs will cost £60,000, Seventeen injured persons have been taken to the hospital. A manhole cover, weighing 4cwt, was thrown into the air, crashed though the roof of a three-storey house, ami. came to rest on a bed on tho first floor. A .torrent of fire roared 50ft into the air from a crater in High street, and a fissure, several hundred yards long, spouted fire—United. Service,