HEAVY DEATH ROLL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22164, 18 January 1934, Page 9

HEAVY DEATH ROLL

EARTHQUAKES IN INDIA AREAS BADLY SHAKEN CORPSES LYING IN STREETS (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) CALCUTTA, January 16. Further earthquake shocks were felt at intervals throughout the day in Calcutta and the whole of North-eastern India. The death roll is steadily growing. An aerial survey of the stricken area around Mussafarpore shows that the town is in ruins. The death roll among the Indians is over 1000. Corpses are lying in the streets and hundreds are buried under the debris. Scarcely a house is standing. The country around is flooded by water which suddenly spouted from fissures which appeared as a result of the earthquake. Bridges were broken, and railway lines destroyed. The death roll must amount to thousands. There is no way of ascertaining the total yet. Thirty-three persons are dead at Jamalpur, and 12 at Bihar. Terrific damage was done to property. The telephone, telegraph, electric light, and water supply services were paralysed. There was tremendous relief when it became known that Darjeeling and Shillong had escaped comparatively lightly with a few deaths. Lucknow, Cawnpore, and Benares suffered heavily. Collapsing dwellings rendered thousands homeless. It is amazing. that the casualties were relatively so few.

In Patna it is officially stated that 61 persons are dead and 400 injured. Four thousand houses were demolished. The town is in darkness. The hospitals are full. THE MUSSAFARPORE AREA. FLOODS ADD TO HORROR. CALCUTTA, January 16. Airmen who made a survey of the Mussafarpore area say that water Is covering the whole district to a depth of five feet. The tops of some houses arc visible, but most of them are covered. The area in North-west Mussafarpore is badly affected; in fact, the whole country there is a large expanse of water. All buildings crashed or are. inundated. Motihari and Barrah are both in ruins and nearly all the railway bridges were destroyed. The whole of this area is also under water. At Setemarthi all railway bridges are down, reads and fields flooded, and railway lines a mass of - twisted steel. All the houses were destroyed at Dogra, and the railway workshops collapsed at Jamulpur, killing and injuring an unknown number of workers and their wives and children. ' -. Two European and Indian officials perished in a bungalow which crashed. A station roof collapsed on an incoming train. - •< - , The maharajah’s great palace at Benares was partially wrecked. The minarets and domes of famous mosques and temples crashed to the ground. Three hundred houses collapsed at Cawupbre. ■ ■ ’• Shocks were felt as far away as Bombay and Jodhpur, and slight damage was done to the Government secretariat buildings at New Delhi.