A VERITABLE INFERNO.

Mataura Ensign, 16 January 1914, Page 6

A VERITABLE INFERNO.

terrible Experiences. BT ELECTRIC TSLKGRAPH COPYRIGHT. PBB DNITBO 7BESB ASSOCIATION. j TOKIO, Jan. 14. The means of rescue at Sakurashima were altogether inadequate. Crowds of, fugitives on the beach were overtaken by the fire ancf lava, though the I launches plied heroically amid a hail of boulders and stones- One ship, with 307 •refugees aboard, sank during the second eruption. Many refugees were drowned in trying to swim the straits. EARTHQUAKES SUBSIDING. TOKIO, Jan. 15. Sakurasliima is shrouded with black, smoke, broken by an occasional flicker of flames. The bay is covered with lava. No refuges have arrived from three villages in Sakurasliima. Some of the fugitives lost their way in the thick smoke and were suffocated by the poisonous ga6es. Others, terror-stricken By the fire, rushed into the sea and were drowned.

The earthquakes are now subsiding, ■but appalling rumbling 3 of the earth continue, and a typhoon i» blowing. Six hundred houses at Kogoshima collapsed after one violent shock cn Monday. Thereafter the shaking of the earth was so great that it was impossible to walk upright. Fugitives had to crawl or stumble out of the clfcy, mainly on , tiheir hands and knee 3. j 70,000 MISSING. TOKIO, Jan. .15. | The west side of the volcano blew out last night, vomiting fire furiously, followed by another tidal wave, the sea having a boiling appearance. Earthquakes continue and tbe> destruction has created horrible scenes. Thirteen thousand houses have beea destroyed and 70,000 people are missing. VILLAGES DESTROYED. BT ELECTRIC TKLEGRA.S»H COPTBIGHT. TIMES-STDNET SON SPECIAL CABEII. TOKIO, Jan. 15. All the villages round Sakurashima have been destroyed. Kanoshima is embedded in two or three feet of aßhes. The volcano is emitting smoke which rises to a height of three miles, and ashes are falling here—6oo miles away. Tho mainland for several miles from Sakura has been totally destroyed by fire and flood.