Huge Cavern In Street As Result Of Explosion.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18644, 22 December 1928, Page 1

Huge Cavern In Street As Result Of Explosion.

WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL CANNOT UNDERTAKE OPERATIONS, BECAUSE WATER IS CUT OFF AND FIRES MAY NOT BE LIT.

(United Press Association.—By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (Received December 22, 12.30 p.m.)

LONDON, December 21. HIGH HOLBORN shopkeepers in the danger area had a heartbreaking experience. A butcher with £4OO worth of Christmas turkeys remained open, hut there were no customers because the shop overlooks a huge cavern. Patients at the Royal Westminster Hospital/arc being fed with cold tinned foods, as fires are not permitted. Operations cannot be undertaken as the water is cut off. An urgent operation necessary to prevent a patient losing liis sight was carried out with the aid of an electric steriliser. A lug section of High Holborn continues desolate. Five hundred police and many firemen were on duty' all night and many houses were compulsorily evacuated. The flames continue to blaze in the road through ever-widening fissures in streets, making the region a miniature inferno. Fires in some places are threatening the foundations of high buildings, and water is being pumped in to combat the peril.—Australian Press Association.