SWARM OF RATS
STAMPEDE WOMEN AFTER FLOOD
MELBOURNE, April 20. A swarm of rats stampeded women in Collins Street, City, last night. The rats were flooded out of basements and subways when 65 points of rain fell in half an hour. Hundreds of them suddenly rushed into Collins Street. Many wefe drowned in the flooded gutters. Panic spread when some women saw the rats and ran'screaming into shop doorways. 1 Soon dozens of terrified women Were frantically clutching at passing men, or running for elevated positions. Many people looked skywards, fearing an air raid had caused the panic. The rats quickly disappeared.'
Wind, reaching tornado strength, unroofed many houses in bayside suburbs yesterday afternoon. Fences wefe levelled. ■ 4
The storm first struck Black Rock. It then appeared to ease, but shortly after Ulsternwick received the full force of the gale. Mr H. Port' was in a bath when the roof was blown in on him. Tiles aud debris landed in the room and bath, but he was not injured. A fireball crashed on to the roof of a shop opposite the Ribbonlea station, and bounced on to the road where it split into many pieces. The fireball; which was about the size of a cricket ball, was the color of an orange.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/HOG19400430.2.55
Bibliographic details
Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1940, Page 6
Word Count
212SWARM OF RATS Hokitika Guardian, 30 April 1940, Page 6
Using This Item
The Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd is the copyright owner for the Hokitika Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Greymouth Evening Star Co Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in