THE RAID ON LONDON.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XLII, Issue 11449, 31 January 1918, Page 8

THE RAID ON LONDON.

A SCENE OF HORROR, BOMB FALLS ON A SHELTER. GREAT LOSS OF LIFE. Received Jan/Sl, noon. Loudon, Jan. JO, The raid was the worst j-et. A bomb dropped on a large establishment used as a raid shelter, in a district thickly populated. There is no exact estimate of the number of persons sheltering. It varies from three hundred to a thousand. The staff state that it was capable of holding a thousand and was crowded.

Firemen who assisted in removing bodies declare that the brigade removed about *JS during the night, and it is beliveed that thirteen others have since been recovered.

The big'brick building Jlooks asUf it was cut in half by a iiuge'guillotiuo, the interior walls and floors then collapsing.

The police and fire brigade assert that it is impossible even yet to give a reliable estimate of deaths, but it is certain that the majority are women and children. None of the survivors seem to be able to give a coherent account of the terrible ensuing scone. It was a scene of indescribable horror, to which fire gave the last touch. The basement was a raging inferno within a few minutes.

Fire brigades, police, soldiers and civilians did what men could to rescue the survivors, but many of the injured must have perished in the flames, as the building was soon aflame from top to bottom. Daybreak found it a smoking ruin. About a hundred employers were working when the alarm was given and they assisted shelterers to the basement and tended [those needing attention during the raid. Many of these employers are among the casualties. Many had left the shelter during a lull in the barrage, but flocked back when the guns resumed announcing that the air attack w'as being renewed, and the bomb dropped almost immediately.