THE GRIP OF WINTER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20289, 23 December 1927, Page 9

THE GRIP OF WINTER

. RAPID THAW IN LONDON. MANY CASUALTIES IN STREETS. (Press Association —By Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, December 21. There were extraordinary scenes in the London and suburban streets when a rapid thaw, folio-wed by a resumption of frost, turned the streets into skating rinks. Thousands of workers fell, and the casualties) were numerous. Hundreds of cases were treated in the seven hospitals. Road and railway traffic was chaotic.—A. and N.Z. Cable. THE STREETS IMPASSABLE. PEOPLE FALL LIKE NINEPINS. THOUSANDS IN HOSPITAL. LONDON, December 21. (Received Dec. 22, at 8.30 p.m.) It is estimated that 2000 injured persons were treated in hospital following the most remarkable weather freak in London within memory. Snow began to fall at midnight in the frozen city, when a warm air current was wafted down from the west, making i difference of 12 degrees between the upper and lower temperature, and turning the snow into rain. The ground, however, was so frozen that the rain was immediately turned into ice. Thus by morning London was converted into a gigantic skating rink with a quarter of an inch of glazed frost. Walking was impossible, and people were falling everywhere like ninepins, or were to be seen clinging to railings and unable to move. Many tied newspapers or rags around their boots to prevent slipping, while thousands did not venture from their homes. Traffic was in indescribable chaos, motor vehicles sliding dangerously and turning completely round. Horses were quite unable to proceed, and trains -’-ere.thrown into entire confusion, the wheels not gripping the frozen rails. Thousands of workers were stranded, and thousands of buses were unable to leave the garages. Hospitals were converted into Scenes resembling casualty clearing stations in Fx-anco during the war, all previous records for ambulance calls being broken. There were many serious cases of fractured limbs, ami even several deaths. Later in the morning rain fell, rendering the roads temporarily more treacherous, but a thaw set in in the aftexmoon. Similar scenes were witnessed in Paris, where 400 persons were sent to hospital, some with serious features, and four or five were fatally injured. Midnight revellers at Montmartre found the taxis unable to move', and hundreds of vehicles were backed against the kerbs to prevent their sliding downhill. The morning milk and the newspapers were not delivered owing to the impossibility of walking or driving. One motor car skidded the full width of a road on to a footpath and-killed a woman and injured four other persons. Hundreds of vehicular crashes wore reported throughout the city.—A. and N.Z. Cable.