ONE SURVIVOR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21783, 24 April 1934, Page 11

ONE SURVIVOR

MINE EXPLOSION / SAVED BY A HORSE YUGOSLAVIAN DISASTER / OVER 200 LIVES LOST PATHETIC INCIDENTS / By Telecraph—Press Association—Copyright (Received April 23, 5.5 p.m.) Times Cable LONDON. April 23 The Vienpa correspondent of the Times states that the total number of men underground in the Kakanji coalmine, near Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, at the time of the firedamp explosion was 221. The one man saved, owed his life to grasping the tail of a horse, which stampeded when the explosion occurred and dragged the survivor, a halfsenseless condition, to safety. Despatches from Belgrade state that female relatives and children of the miners entombed by the explosion spent a night of suspense at the pithead. They sang death songs as 1-17 bodies were successively brought to the surface. The third gallery, the scene of the worst effects of the explosion, is being explored, but it is feared that there are no survivors. The disaster is officially stated to have been due to an explosion of unusual quantities of eas. The collapse of the ground and the seepage of water hindered rescue work. The Government is relieving the victims' families. The first intimation of the disaster was when oxen, drawing a plough in the vicinity, suddenly stopped. A thunderous roar was heard, followed by a shaking of the earth, after which a sheet of flame leaped from the pithead, -"succeeded by a volcano-like burst of smoke and ashes.