EXPLOSION IN TRAIN.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2126, 7 December 1920, Page 7

EXPLOSION IN TRAIN.

BLASTING POWDER BLOWS UP. SIX PASSENGERS INJURED. Press Association. GISBORNE, December 6. A sensational accident, resulting in injury to six persons, occurred on the Gisborne Railway Station to-day just before the 4.5 p.m. train for Motuhara was timed to depart. The train was standing at the platform with a large number of passengers aboard and about the platform when a loud report startled everyone in the vicinity, and a burst of flame and smoke was seen to come from a carriage standing directly opposite the door of the stationmaster's office. There were five occupants of the carriage, a second-class smoker, and all received burns about the face, limbs and body, while a woman who was standing on the platform of the carriage next to the one in which the explosion occurred also received burns on face, limbs and body. The force of the explosion blew out the glass in the door of the carriage and struck her with considerable force. Those injured were:— John Tolholff (Mangapapa). Thomas Burns (Rakauroa). Thomas Kearns (Rakauroa). A. D. Tawhl (Ruatoki). James Tupu (Otoko). Miss Lena Hill (Otoko). Medical assistance was summoned, and two doctors "bandaged the patients and prepared them for removal to the hospital. All were suffering from shock and burns. In some cases the flame burned the skin off and singed and burned clothes and hair.

Inquiries at the hospital to-night show that no serious results are anticipated. There was a considerable amount of speculation concerning the cause of the explosion. It was discovered that it was due to a parcel of blasting powder under the carriage seat becoming ignited. The owner of the parcel has not yet been located. One of the patients informed the police that he saw a brown paper parcel under the seat. The parcel was burning, and he put his foot on it to extinguish the flames. By,so doing he apparently detonated the package, which contained blasting powder, and the explosion occurred. The report was a very loud one, the burst of flame and explosion blowing out the glass in .the door with a crash, and badly scorching the interior of the carnage. Being a smoking carriage, the package could easily have become lighted by a match dropped on to the floor in the vicinity of the parcel. One passenger had an exceedingly fortunate escape from injury. He Was just about to step on to the carriage, having said good-bye to a friend, when the door blew out, the force of the explosion just missing him. James Tupu, a Maori, one of the victims, had been discharged from hospital only this morning and was going home by train, when the accident necessitated his return to the institution. On the luggage rack in the same carriage as the explosion occurred was another package of blasting powder, but this was not involved in the explosion.