BURMA EARTHQUAKE
FIRE ADDS TO HORROR. HUNDREDS DEAD AT PEGU. TERRIBLE SCENES WITNESSED. (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) , DELHI, May 6. Tite latest reports from Rangoon estimate. the dead at Pegu at 500 to 700. The- town experienced three shocks! Terrible scenes were witnessed in the Panphlaing Seite area, two miles of which were destroyed by lire, hundreds being crushed or burnt to death. Fifty people perished at the Myochite kinema. Following the first shock the town was plunged into darkness, and fire broke out in the bazaar • area, the wooden buildings quickly blazing. The terrified inhabitants fled and encountered water four feet deep from . the broken mains. They, were later overwhelmed bv a tidal wave from the ,river. The Pegu division (district and town) comprises the lowland north-west of the Gulf of Martaban, across the ■ Valley of the lower Sittang to that of the Irrawadi above the delta;' The district occupies the western sifle of the lower valley of the Sittang, and rice is. the sole crop. The town is on the Pegu River, and is the railway junction northeast of Rangoon for the lines to' Moulmein and Mandalay. , It was formerly the capital of the Pegu Empire,- which was overthrown by Burma.'., The population of the town’ and district is about 40,000. . ; ' r.,-
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Bibliographic details
Otago Daily Times, Issue 21020, 8 May 1930, Page 9
Word Count
216BURMA EARTHQUAKE Otago Daily Times, Issue 21020, 8 May 1930, Page 9
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