ISLAND TRAGEDY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22131, 10 June 1935, Page 12

ISLAND TRAGEDY

CROWD'S PANIC RUSH CHILDREN CRUSHED TO DEATH Seventv-five people, mostly women and children, were trampled underfoot and crushed to death in a panic rush of a crowd of 2000 at Bahrein, a British island in the Persian Gulf. The crowd had been drawn to the house of a Persian merchant by the news that he was to distribute alms to the poor. Thronging through a narrow passage, they were soon jammed as closely as sardines in a tin in the inner courtyard of the house, unable to move and with a mob still pressing into the passage.

In an effort to control the excited crowd, the outer door, which opened inward, was closed and locked. Then for some unexplained reason a panic broke out in the courtyard, and hundreds fought their way toward the bottle-neck, exit, now shut tight.

Before the door could be broken down outside, many had been terribly crushed and some suffocated. In addition to the 75 dead, hundreds were injured. The Sheik of Bahrein opened a subscription list for relatives of the victims and the Bahrein Government has ordered an inquiry. Bahrein was recently selected as a new base for British warships in the «ear East. It lies on the Imperial Airways route to India. One of the adjacent islands. Muharraq, contains the Meat national aerodrome between Engand India.