TWENTY DEATHS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 167, 16 June 1936, Page 7

TWENTY DEATHS

INDIAN THEATRE BLAZE. AUDIENCE TRAPPED. DISTRESSING SCENES.

(United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Tunes Cables.) Received June 16, 11.0 a.m. LONDON, July 15. The Bombay correspondent of the Times says that at least twenty, mostly women and children, were incinerated and many injured in a fire at the Motimahal Cinema, Hyderabad. The outbreak originated in a cabin and spread with lightning rapidity to the wooden balcony reserved tor Zenana women, who rushed to the exits, where they were cut off by flames enveloping the staircase. Some leapt to tho auditorium, where many were crushed in the panicstricken surge to tho doors. The balcony collapsed, burying the occupants in the debris. The theatre, speedily becoming a roaring furnace, was completely burnt out. Fourteen bodies have been recovered and are recognisable only by jewellery. The rescue work was hampered by enormous crowds who were almost driven mad by the screams of dying relatives. The Nizam of Hyderabad later visited the ruins and criticised the inadequacy of protection against fire. He tile Police Commissioner henceforth not to permit buildings to be used as cinemas unless the escape of the audiences is ensured.