SEVEN KILLED IN TRAIN SMASH.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18450, 28 April 1928, Page 12

SEVEN KILLED IN TRAIN SMASH.

CARRIAGES CATCH FIRE AFTER DISASTER

(United Press Assn. —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received April 28, 10.30 a.m.) CAPE TOWN, April 27. The mail train from Johannesburg to Cape Town was derailed at the Hex River Pass, in a mountainous region, early this morning and rolled over. Seven carriages caught fire. The driver and fireman and five passengers were killed. The whole country is awaiting definite news.—Australian Press Asociation.

FIVE COACHES ROLLED OVER MOUNTAIN SIDE

(United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received April 28, 11 a.m.) CAPETOWN, April 27. Morning coffee was being served at six o’clock -when the engine left the rails at a culvert at the sharpest point of ' the curve. The engine and five coaches rolled over the mountain side for a short distance, the engine burying itself. Fire broke out in the galley and dining saloon, and only* the steel frames are left, everything they contained, including personal luggage, having been destroyed. The frequency of accidents is alarming the public. In the Assembly, General Smuts demanded an impartial inquiry. The Minister of Railways expressed his deepest sympathy with the relatives of the dead and injured, and undertook that the Government would consider the whole question. The Minister of Justice promised an impartial inquiry'.—Australian Press Association. United Serviqe.