THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 5025, 5 June 1889, Page 2

THE JOHNSTOWN DISASTER.

FURTHER PARTICULARS. (Pea Eurotrio Telegraph —Gor ykujnr.) (Per Press association.) New York, June '4. Bands of foreigners are] stripping and robbing all valuables from those who lost their lives in the Johnstown floods, and are also committing wholesale murder of the injured. Several Hungarians, who were found to bo connected with the outrages, and cutting off the fingers and ears of corpses in order to gain possession of jewellery, have been lynched. (Eeoeivod 1.20 a.m., June sth.) Twenty foreigners, who were detected robbing the dead at Johnstown, were lynched by the mob. Seven others under fire of revolvers were driven back into the flood until they were drowned. Two

thousand bodies are being slowly cremated on the railway bridge at Johnstown, which caught fire from the burning debris piled against it. It is now estimated that from 10,000 to 15,000 lives were lost in Johnstown alone. In many instances people committed suicide. The estimated loss is 40,000,000 dollars. (Special to the Press Association.)

(Received 2.20 a.m., Juno sth.) New York, June 4. The site on which the town of Johnstown stood presents the appearance of a lake with water forty feet deep. A large body of military have been despatched to the scene of the disaster to protect the wounded. A fund in aid of the sufferers has been opened. The flood is subsiding. The Pennsylvania Railway Company estimate their loss at 15,000,000 dollars. Several thousands of people have been rendered homeless, and it is feared that a pestilence may break out.