CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 267, 9 October 1940, Page 7

CIVILIAN CASUALTIES.

RAIN OF NAZI BOMBS

LONDON, Oct. 7

The Air Ministry announced that the raiders to-day damaged a town in South-AVest England and commercial property in two boroughs of London. The casualties so far reported are not heavy. A big air battle occurred over Dorset late this afternoon, when seven raiders were shot down.

A high-explosive bomb fell almost directly on a public shelter in a western town, trapping women and children under masses of debris from a neighbouring building. Rescuers worked feverishly to extricate those in the shelter, but a number are known to be dead.

Other death? resulted from a direct •hit which demolished a tailoring establishment. A baker and his horse were killed in a roadway. Incendiarv bombs were rained down on Central" London and set fire to buildings, but the fires werp quickly extinguished. A steady stream of raiders flew at great speed from the southeast frequently changing direction to avoid the blazing guns and searchlights. Night raiders were also over Liverpool and other areas in NorthWest England and the Midlands, the west of England, the south-east of Scotland, and Wales. A careful official check 'has shown that 27 and not 28 German/ aircraft were shot down. Sixteen British fighters were lost, but the pilots of It) In the first two hours of the night’s raids on the London area damage was reported from 10 districts. Among the buildings hit were an arcade, a hospital and a block of flats. There were several fires,- but these were quickly extinguished. , , The English Channel weather report to-night states that there is a cloudless, starry sky, with a fairly calm sea and a fresh south-westerly breeze. There is a slight mist in themiddle of the Straits of Dover.