SERIES OF FALLS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20722, 15 November 1930, Page 11

SERIES OF FALLS.

lIILL SAPPED BY WATER. BRAVE WORK OF PRIESTS. NARROW ESCAPE OF NUN. PRAYERS IN CATHEDRAL. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received November 14. n.15 p.m.) PARIS. Nov. 14. 1 lie bill where tlio streets collapsed at Lyons had been honeycombed by the Romans and numerous underground passages made, which the recent rains had filled, forming a lake, which sapped the entiro hill. The collapse of the first portion swept away a recently-erected retaining wall, tho demolition of which made tho whole hill unstably. Tho third convulsion buried tho emergency equipment of the fire brigade and the fourth destroyed a second street.

During tho rescue work Cardinal Maurin, Archbishop of Lyons, led a tireless band of priests, who carried the aged and injured out of the danger zone. One priest remained in a perilous position to absolve the dying. \Vhen tlio landslide wrecked the convent a nun, Sister Blaudin, who was sleeping on the top floor, was thrown with her bed 50ft. to tho ground-floor and buried under 20ft. of earth, rubble and timbers. Her cries were heard at 5 a.m. and four workmen tunnelled for five hours and reached her. They found that a mattress above her had prevented fatal injuries, although she was able to tnovo her head only.

To-night the cathedral of St,. Jean is filled with weeping men and women, praying for their loved ones, while in the rays of a red watchlamp, glimmering dim in the nave, Cardinal Maurin passes silently from group to group, raising his hand in blessing and mingling his prayers with those of the bereaved.

Lyons, the capital of the Department of the Rhone, is 315 miles south-east of Paris, at the confluence of the Rhone and the Saone. Its population is 539.590. The r:ght bank of the Saone is bordered by the steep heights of tho Fourviere, aiiovc the quays, and this is the oldest part of tho city. Ihe bill is 410 ft. high, with tho Church of Notre Dame de Fourviere on top. The name Fourviero is taken from tho old Roman " Forum vetus," the original forum, or market place of tho Romans. The Cathedral of St. Jean is at the foot of the hill of Fourviere. It dates from the 12th century. There are remains of Roman baths and tombs in the city and there is a trace of a subterranean canal and of aqueducts on the Fourviere hill. Jhe Romans settled there in 43 B.C. AMBULANCES WRECKED. OVERWHELMED IN STREET. FATE OF EARLY VICTIMS. TARIS, Nov. 13. Three motor ambulances at Lyons which were conveying injured persons, were overwhelmed with ihrir drivers when the final avalancho at 4.55 a.m. reduced the street to utter ruin. Hope has been abandoned of saving, the earlier victims. Hie wreckago cannot be entirely cleared for months.