PRISON CARNAGE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14145, 21 August 1909, Page 2 (Supplement)

PRISON CARNAGE.

DESPERATE BATTLE WITH ESCAPING

RUSSIAN CONVICTS.

Terrible details of a desperate conflict between a number of convicts and the warders of the Russian Government prison at Vilna come from St. Petersburg.

At 7.30 a.m. one of the warders entered the- cell in which four prisoners were confined. He had scarcely opened • the door when they made a combined rush upon him, and one of them cut his troat with a knife. They took hie keys and revolver, and proceeded to release four, other convicts from a neighbouring cell. The eight prisoners then dashed along the main corridor, and attacked and killed two warders;'''•who attempted to stop them, cutting their throats, and taking their revolvers.

■On "reaching the courtyard they shot down a warder Who was stationed there, and started climbing the prison wall. The sentinel at the gate opened fire upon them with his carbine, killing one of them on the spot, and severely wounding another. The survivors got clear of the prison, and ran out into the streets. Two of them attacked with daggers the first policeman they met, and inflicted mortal wounds upon him in the neck and throat. i.

A short distance further a second policeman drew his sword, and ordered them to stop. A furious fight ensued, as the result of which the policeman cut down two of the convicts, one with a slash across the head, and the other with a blow which almost severed the arm at the elbow. Both convicts were killed, the first falling at the policeman's feet and the second expiring in the courtyard of a neighbouring house, to which he just managed to stagger. ' The remaining four refugees, pursued by a strong force of warders, police, and soldiers, sped along a river bank. One of them soon became exhausted, and sought to conceal himself in a private house near by, but was discovered by the pursuers and shot. The three others espied a number of workmen bathing in the river, and they hastily threw off their prison garb and attired themselves in the clothes they found on the bank.

By the time the change -was effected their pursuers were almost upon them. The convicts continued their flight, making a brief halt in some brushwood and endeavouring to hold the pursuers at bay with their revolver fire. They wounded a warder, but one of their own number was killed by the hot fire which was poured into the bushes. The last two convicts fled. further into the woods, which were accordingly surrounded by a cordon of troops.

Firing was renewed, and one of the convicts was badly wounded. Realising that he had no chance of escape, he cut hie own throat and died. His companion succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the cordon, and has not yet been recaptured. . '