FIVE MEN RAID HOTEL

Taranaki Daily News, 5 January 1935, Page 15 (Supplement)

FIVE MEN RAID HOTEL

Glasses And Bottles Swept To The Floor CUSTOMERS ARE INJURED IN ONSLAUGHT ON BAR ■piVE well-dressed young men made a mysterious raid on the Norfolk Arms Hotel, North End Road, Fulham, London, at closing time on a recent evening. Five men customers and a number of women were injured, several being taken to hospital. All the glasses in the saloon bar were smashed, and bottles of wine and spirits were swept off the counter. Customers about to leave the hotel were thrown in a heap on the floor. A number of people was threatened by the intruders. No money or articles of value were stolen, though great damage was done. Shortly before closing time a powerful car drew up opposite the hotel. The engine was left running and four men got out, leaving the fifth in charge of the car. Mrs Cobley, wife of the licensee, said to a “Daily Mail" reporter: “I was behind the bar. The men, all between 20 and 30 years of age, stood in a group, in front of me. They ordered their drinks and then before we could serve them I saw dozens of glasses swept off the counter. Bottles of whisky, brandy, gm and wines were sent crashing on to the floor. “Men and women were scrambling about and many people were being trampled on. A shower of broken glass came full at my face. I put my hands up, but my fingers were badly cut. Mr William West, of Heckfield Place, Fulham, said: “One man went behind the counter and attacked the manager, who was counting up the night’s takings. The barman went to the manager s assistance and then there was a general scuffle. Glasses were swept from the counter and some women, thinking that the men might possibly be armed, ran screaming from the saloon .bar. “In the dimmed light it looked to me as if one man was wearing a small black mask. Two women tried to stop the men as they were leaving the saloon bar, but the men brushed them aside, and fought a number of men who also tried to stop them.”