PEOPLE KILLED AND HOUSES WRECKED

Southland Times, Issue 24765, 9 June 1942, Page 5

PEOPLE KILLED AND HOUSES WRECKED

EXPLOSION IN LONDON STREET (Rec. 5 p.m.) LONDON, June 7. Twenty-eight people are dead or missing and at least 100 were injured when a tremendous explosion occurred in Gurney street near the Elephant and Castle, demolishing a dozen houses and a block of flats. The cause of the explosion is not known. Under dim flares over 500 men, women and children worked all night long searching for victims who were still entombed under the wreckage. These included at least 10 children. The explosion made a crater 120 feet across, and 20 feet deep at the heart of what was once a three-storey building. Not one family in the whole of Gurney street escaped without loss. Rescuers who worked throughout the night to clear the roadway of debris discovered the crushed bodies of six children. The blast of the explosion affected about 200 houses, while five three-storey buildings at one spot crumpled. A Ministry of Home Security communique states that it has been ascertained that the explosion was due to an undetected and unexploded bomb. The casualties in the explosion are now officially estimated at 150. Nineteen bodies have been recovered. It is believed that one woman lost all six of her children.

The apparent mystery of the nondiscovery of the bomb is explained by the fact that bombs are known to travel considerable distances underground leaving little evidence of their presence. Some of these bombs were first erroneously called “creeping bombs.” In the search for victims of the explosion Home Office experts for the first time employed a new secret electrical detector designed to discover if any persons are buried alive. The device consists of a listening van connected to microphones, which are placed on the debris.

Loud-speakers, after asking for silence from the rescuers, announced loudly, “If you can hear knock with a brick or shout.” The detector did not pick up any replies.