THE MINE DISASTER IN FRANCE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 51, 13 March 1906, Page 2

THE MINE DISASTER IN FRANCE.

FURTHER DETAILS. THE LOSS OF LIFE. TERRIBLE SCENES. (Press Association.— By Telegraph:."}"" —Copyright). PARIS, March 12. All the Governments and heads of States have condoled with the sufferers by the Couirieres disaster. The latest estimate it that upwards of 1100 lives have been lost. The disaster created a profound sensation in Fans. President Fallieres Bent a representative to express his sympathy with the population. The outgoing Ministers of the Interior and of Works Visited the scene. The Government is organising public relief for the widows and orphans. The Press syndicate at Paris has initiated private charity. The Prefect of Pas-de-Calais describes the difficulty of restraining the bewildered wives and children of the miners still underground from approaching the flames that are issuing from the pits', mouths and which are increasing in volume and intensity, and waylaying the vehicles conveying the corpses with a view to ascertaining their breadwinners' fate. Ho has summoned rtirK • forcements of troops and gendarmes to, maintain order. The general excite-, ment in the district is. grousing a cer» tain degree of apprehension. The explosion projected thrco cages!, with men that were being lowered, des^ troying the roofs oyer the' gits. Four men arrived at the surface by' ladders after passing over the bodies qf men and horses prostrated by the '*X-* ptaHon. Flames next issued.' The rescuers, including doctors and engineers, descended b S means of other " shafts and rescued, tfiree hundred and fifty men wh.Q, were working halfamile from tha explosion, and brought them to »_e surface. They had not suffered severely. Later three hundred, mor_ I or nlu SS sen °w*ly injured, were rescued. | The i-Kuers worked in relays till night , oat* made their way six hundred yards from the bottom of the shaft. Two miners wero found alive at midnight. The man, after the explosion, told them to he down, and by so doing they escaped the first gust of poisonous air, but they were imprisoned for eight hours. Tho foreman said he felt he was dying aid urged them to escape. Three men tried to save the foreman, but he is missing and doubtless he has fallen * ,