SPANISH RIOTERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22831, 16 March 1936, Page 10

SPANISH RIOTERS

CHURCH SET ON FIRE SHOTS EXCHANGED WITH POLICE 'United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) MADRID, March 14. (Received March 15, at 6.30 p.rn.) Rioters set fire to the church of San Ignacio and many valuable paintings and sculptures were destroyed. Firemen fought desperately to prevent the flames from spreading to the Puerta del Sol, the largest of the many plazas in Madrid. The police were greeted with a hail of bullets.

A shock guard shot and wounded two rioters who set lire to the San Ignacio Convent, which was soon a mass of flamed. The nuns saved the nunnery of Santa Isabella from destruction. The mob attempted to set fire to the office of the Catholic newspaper El Debate, but the guards inside repulsed them with rifle fire. All is quiet now, Jose de Rivera, the former dictator’s eon, and other members of the Fascist Board of Directors, including the famous airman Julio Ruizalda, were arrested for belonging to an illegal body. DESPERATE MEASURES NEWSPAPER OFFICE DESTROYED MADRID, March 13. (Received March 14, at 5.5 p.m.) Communists, returning from the funeral of Detective Gisbert, who was shot by students in mistake for Deputy Jimenez Asua, whom he was escorting, set fire to the offices of the Monarchist newspaper La Nacion, which were gutted. Two were wounded in a police clash with the Communists, in which 60 shots were fired at the-demonstrators, who tried to raid a gunshop to procure arms. After that they robbed motorists of petrol to ignite the Church of San Luis.