LONDON TUBE DISASTER

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 March 1943, Page 5

LONDON TUBE DISASTER

HUGE CROWD SUFFOCATED

178 DEAD—6O INJURED

RUGBY, March 4. On Wednesday evening a serious accident took place near the entrance to a London tube shelter, causing death by suffocation of a number ot Pe Acc 6 ording to accounts available, shortly after the alert sounded, sub-, stantial numbers of people were making their way as usual towards the shelter entrance. There were nearly 2000 in the shelter, when an elderly woman burdened with a bundle and baby, tripped near the foot of a flight of nineteen steps leading down from the street, and terminating in a landing. The woman fell down two or three steps and lay on the landing. Her fall tripped an elderly mah who fell similarly. Thenbodies tripped those behind, and within a few seconds a large number were lying on the lower steps and the landing, completely blocking the stairway. Those coming in from tne street could not see what had taken place and continued to press down the stairway, and within a tew minutes hundreds of people were crushed together ,and were lying on ton .of one another. the time it was possible to extricate the bodies, it was found a total at present estimated at' lib were dead, and 60 were in need ol hospital treatment. There was no Sign of panic before the accident, and no bomb fell in the vicinity.