FATAL RIOTING

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 268, 12 October 1932, Page 7

FATAL RIOTING

UNEMPLOYED IN BELFAST. CIVILIAN KILLED. MOB CLASHES WITH POLICE. (United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) Received October 12, 12-45 p.m. BELFAST, Oct. 11.

Unemployed rioting which lasted all day culminated in fighting between the police and the mob in which Samuel Baxter, aged 30, was killed. The authorities are imposing a curfew between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. Anyone found in the streets will bo arrested.

The polioe, reinforced by country constables, 'by repeated baton charges and patrolling in armoured cars suppressed morning attempts to organise a march of 8000 upon the workhouse to demand higher unemployment relief. The rioters attempted to stop trams and buses by barricades and stoning and injuring the drivers and conductors.

The mob, by stone-throwing, attempted to rescue three of their leaders who were being conveyed to the police station by an armoured car. They were dispersed by police charges.

The disturbances were more serious in the afternoon, when Falls Road was barricaded. The police were bombarded with numerous missiles and many shop windows were broker). Looting was widespread. Armed reinforcements arrived and fired a reply to sniping from the mob, which dispersed, leaving Mr Baxter, who, it is reported, took no part in the rioting, dead. The fighting was renewed in the evening and many were taken to hospital, including twelve with bullet wounds, two of whom are in a critical condition.

Non-participants in the rioting who were shot include a man who was taking his son to school, and a boy from a workshop. The mob dug trenches, barricaded the streets, seized a Corporation bus and ejected the passengers and drove off the vehicle ; they also looted a lorry carrying stout. Six armed civilians seized a policeman and stole his revolver and ammunition. All tiro tranis and buses are stopped. Thousands congregated in the streets which 2000 armed police are patrolling. They have cordoned the city, preventing an entrance.