DAM BURSTS.

Grey River Argus, 29 November 1927, Page 5

DAM BURSTS.

IN ALGERIA.

1 Over 300 Drowned. 10,000 PEOPLE RUSH TO THE HILLS. »’ A and N. Z. Cable Asm.) (Receiv d N’ovember 28 at 10.5 p.m ) PARTS. November 27. Floods in Algeria broke a dam and burst underground river. Manv houses in various towns collapsed. Aeroplanes are rendering aid to the people rendered homeless in out of the way places. I Trains were held up in several dotations. The drowned are believed to number more than three hundred. The promptness of the engineer (W. Forgone!) of the dam, in sending out telephone messages gave forty minutes’ warning to the people in the picturesque town of Perregaux (railway junction on the Habra River, forty miles east of Oran) that the dam was about to collapse, and averted an appalling disaster. The majority of the ten thousand inhabitants werc enabled to rush to the hills, where they are at present isolated and destitute.

The flood engulfed trains, twisting the engines and bridges in fantastic shapes. Two Europeans were seen clinging to a tree top, but help was impossible, and they were overwhelmed. Rescuers are endeavouring to reach a marooned train in which are many starving children, without food and water. WATERS POUR THROUGH RAILWAY. LONDON, November 28. The Daily Mail’s Algiers correspon dent reports that the Fergaid Dam. six hundred yards long and a hundred feet high. collapsed. Mostaganem wireless messages state that the situation is terrible. Waters poured in through the railway tunnel, destroying factories and warehouses, and all drains burst. A hundred casualties are mentioned.