TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 13094, 16 February 1937, Page 5

TERRIBLE TRAGEDY

MANCHURIAN THEATRE ABLAZE. ALREADY 80S BODIES RECOVERED. (U.P.A. by Elec Tel. Copyright). TOKIO, Feb. 14. A theatre built of wood and plaster, and crammed with 1500 people, caught fixe at Antung in Manchuria and hundreds of people, mostly women and children,.were burned to death or trampled down and suffocated. Tho bodies recovered number 858. A gallery collapsed and a yelling crowd jammed the meagre exits. Entire families perished. Tho fire originated from a candle in an actor’s room at tho back of the stage. The flames spread to 30 adjoining houses which wero destroyed.

GALA PERFORMANCE IN FULL ' SWING.

VICTIMS TRIP .OVER LONG ROBES.

COLLAPSE OF GALLERY

(U.P.A. by Elec. Tel. Copyright) (Received Feb. 15, 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, Feb. 14

Tho Daily Mail’s Antung correspondent reports that survivors are still scrambling among the smouldering ruins searching for the bodies of relatives. Many of the seekers are orphaned beys and girls. Thus far 680 bodies have been recovered, many being unrecognisable. The death roll is estimated at 800.

The audienco had assembled lor a gala performance in celebration of the Chinese New Year, and wearing long gaily-lined robes, over which many tripped when attempting to escape. The confusion was so great that less than half the .audienco emerged when after the collapse of the gallery, flinging the occupants on'to the frenzied mass below, tho blazing walls and roof fell in, completely defeating tho courageous efforts of firemen and Japanese troops.

Fifty' house's were also destroyed. Among the bodies recovered is that of a Japanese policeman who sacrificed his life in attempting to cut a hole in a wall to release the imprisoned

One’hundred were seriously injured