HORROR OF LAGNY.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXIV, Issue 955, 27 December 1933, Page 1

HORROR OF LAGNY.

i Christmas Overshadowed by Disaster. OVER TWO HUNDRED DEAD. United Press Assn.—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. PARIS, December 26. Christmas was overshadowed by the horror of the Lagny disaster, which plunged a thousand homes into mourning. A number of the bodies were so cut to pieces that they were not only unidentifiable, but it was difficult to be sure whether they were one or two bodies. Searchers are still bringing bodies to the Chapelle Ardente at the Gare de l’Est, where nuns are holding vigil throughout the day, while a stream of distracted relatives are filing past on the chance of identifying the bodies. The death roll is now 220. The funeral service is being arranged in the Cathedral of Notrj Dame, on Wednesday. The coffins will be borne through the streets. Though the driver and the fireman of one of the trains were arrested, the authorities are quite unable at present to fix the responsibility for the disaster. Experts agree that, if the coaches had been made of steel instead of wood, the casualties would have been small. FUNERAL SERVICE. Simplest of Ceremonies Planned. (Received December 27, 12.30 p.m.) PARIS, December 26. The President and members of the Government will attend the funeral service to the victims of the Lagny railway disaster, which is to be held at the Gare de l’Est on December 27. The great hall of the station has been converted into a chapel, draped in black and silver, with a catafalque on a dais in the centre. The ceremony will be of the simplest. The victims include an American and several central Europeans. The remainder are French. The driver and fireman of the second train are to be charged with dashing into a thick fog at over sixty miles an hour and not properly obeying the signals, which were plainly at danger.