STORM IN EUROPE

Taranaki Daily News, 8 July 1929, Page 9

STORM IN EUROPE

TWENTY PERSONS KILLED HAILSTONES AND LIGHTNING HOMES & CROPS DAMAGED TERRIFYING EXPERIENCES By Telegraph—Press Assn.—Copyright. Australian Press Association. Received July 7, 5.5 p.m. Times Cable. London, July 6. ■ At least twenty people perished in a violent storm of lightning, hail and rain which swept South Germany and Austria, causing immense damage to crops and in other ways. The Berlin correspondent of the Times say# the 20 were mostly killed by lightning, falling trees, and the capsizing of lake and other water craft. One man with a horse arid cart was blown into the Danube near Straubing and drowned. Hailstones were as big as fists and severely damaged the crops and cut the faces and hands of people running for shelter. They also smashed 75 window panes on the Berlin-Munich train, 35 passengers being treated for wounds caused by glass splinters. Roofs and chimneys in Vienna and in nearly every town in Austria were demolished, while telephones and telegraphs Were reduced to chaos. Thousands of trees were uprooted, and the spires in several churches collapsed. In Vienna the fire brigade w*as called but to prop up the roofs and walls of no fewer than 120 houses.