DAYS OF TERROR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19769, 17 February 1927, Page 7

DAYS OF TERROR

THE BALKANS SHAKEN WIDESPREAD DISTRESS OVER SIX HUNDRED PEOPLE DEAD. 2By Telesrranh —Per Press Received Feb. 16, 8.35 p-m. BELGRADE, Feb. 15. A total of 176 distinct earthquake shocks have been recorded in the Balkans since Monday. Latest reports in. dicate that 600 people have been killed. In many districts the earthquakes were accompanied by vivid flashes of lightning and peals of terrifying thunder, which added to the horror of the scenes. In the centre of the trouble, in Montenegro, great fissures appeared in the fields, and huge boulders were broken from the mountains and crashed down in the valleys, accompanied by avalanches of snow and ice, which levelled forests and houses. Fields often sank below the river level, and were converted into swamps. Railway lines crumpled up, and telegraph wires were torn down. A number of houses in the Polovopolje district, overlooking an embankment, were bodily swept into the river without notice, drowning the miserable inmates, who were hopelessly trapped. A party of Englishmen at Ragusa, who also experienced the great San Francisco earthquake, recalls Professor Bendandi’s prophesy made early in January, that 1927 would be a year of great earthquakes. The centre of the disturbance was beneath the sea. Huge waves swept the Dalmatian coast, forcing the inhabitants to, flee. Great damage was done at Peljesac Peninsula, where a church tower collapsed and many buildings were destroyed-