KING OF BULGARIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 287, 1 November 1934, Page 7

KING OF BULGARIA.

DRIVES TRAIN AFTER MISHAP. SOFIA, Oct. 30. King Boris of Bulgaria was travelling on the express from Sofia to Varna when the locomotive caught fire 140 miles from Varna. The King dressed the engine-driver’s _ burns and then drove the locomotive to the nearest river, when he helped the crew to extinguish the fire. The King then remounted the footplate and drove the train to Varna.

Kng Boris has always been keenly interested in railways, and he is an excellent engine-driver. The Daily Mail’s Varna correspondent says that the fire in the locomotive was due to an attempt to murder King Boris by a time-bomb placed in the tender among the coal. King Boris heard the explosion and saw the flames. The engine was gaining speed and it was suprising that it was not derailed. King Boris clambered along the footboard, reached the blazing locomotive where he found the driver barely conscious, stopped the train, and tended th driver. Police have arrested many railway men between Sofia and Varna. Another message'denies that the fire was due to a bomb used in an attempt o*n the life of King Boris, who noticed that the train stopped at an unscheduled station. He went to investigate and saw the driver trying to extinguish his burning clothes. He sprang on to the locomotive, saved the man, and then drove the train. The fire was due to the overheated brakes.