FORTY IN WRECKED PUBLICHOUSE.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 December 1917, Page 4

FORTY IN WRECKED PUBLICHOUSE.

SLANTING BOMB IN THE GROUND FLOOR. London, Oct i. lu a populous neighbourhood of North-east Loudon there stands—or there stood—a corner publichouse. It was crowded on Saturday night when the heavy gunfire began. The company decided they were as safe there as anywhere else, and the landlord permitted them to stay, stipulating that no drink be served after 9.30. Most of the customers, some 40 in number, stayed in the public rooms and the ground floor, \ydth two or three stories above them. landlord’s wife took her three children, the eldest only fiv'e years old, into the cellar.

ROOF. UNTOUCIiRD. At about 945 came a terrific crash and blow, which knocked most of tlie people senseless .for a minute or two. A bomb or aerial torpedo smashed into the saloon bar on the ground floor. Owing to the pull of the aeroplane, 'which seemed to be travelling at a high rate, it fell at, a slant, missed the roof and the upper stories, struck the building slightly bdlowthe ceil-t ing on the ground floor, and exploded inside. It wrecked the bars completely. It blew up into the bars the barrels which had been in the cellar.

They presented an amazing sight this nlorning, half a dozen of them in a regular slope, like balloons suspended from the roof. The upper rooms, showing from the. outside no more damage than broken windows, had the odd appearance of resting on nothing—just poised in the air. Nobody can give a clear account of what happened when the house was struck. “ I was counting my money,” says the landlord, “when all-of a sudden I was whirled round by something terribly loud and strong, and when T came to I was in the middle of ruins, with people lying round me anyhow, mixed up with broken glass and furniture. I was dazed, but I crawled out of tlie wreck somehow, hearing screams round me. My wife was dead. She had left the children for a moment to speak to me. and the staircase was knocked out as she was coming up. By a mercy my three children, who were in the cellar, escaped without serious injuries, though they were all hit. “ NI’KSF WAS SPLENDID.”

“ My nurse. Rose Anthony', was splendid. 4 She brought the little boy r out, and a policeman rescued the bady. People helped each other. We were all hurt more or less.and practically all taken to the hospital. As you see, my face is bandaged. Funny' thing, I found in my pocket the silver I was counting, all covered with grit. I must have put it in by instinct when the smash came. One man was blown clean acr.oss the street.”

In quick succession two other bombs fell not far away'. Next to a big building is a block of artisan dwellings, consisting'of five sections of three flats each. Here again the bomb came down at an acute angle, shot under the main principals of the building, brought down in ruins the part of it which was struck, and destroyed many of the flats.

By a mercy one tiny room on the ground flo'or back was not hit or damaged. In this little apartment used as a store-room by the caretaker, all the inhabitants of the block, about 20 in number, were gathered. They did not suffer a scratch.

Forty-three persons were taken to a hospital. A little girl who was hit in the street died a quarter of an hour after admission, and a man with a large wound in his leg died in four hours. A woman was so badly injured that her case was regarded as critical this afternoon. Most of tlie injured after first treatment were able to go home, but a dozen remained.

Inquiries are being made to-day concerning a man who is supposed to have been killed. His body r may' be covered under debris somewhere.

KINFMA “ CARRIES ON.”

Innumerable stories are told of quiet courage in the emergency. The operator in a picture theatre, although his work is on the roof, insisted on ‘-carrying on” and showed pictures until well after eleven o’clock. Four deaths occurred in another ( part of the north-eastern district among people sheltering in back rooms of semi-basements, the bombs exploding a few yards away' in the gardens and portions of shrapnel and casing shattering and passing through into the rooms. In one house a little boy and girl were killed, their mother had her arm injured, and the father liis hand. In the other house a mother and child were killed and another woman was injured. Many of tlie other casualties occurred in the streets —in four instances among a group making a dash to enter a station.