THEATRE IN FLAMES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 142, 17 June 1936, Page 7

THEATRE IN FLAMES

FOURTEEN BODIES FOUND TRAGEDY AT HYDERABAD. LONDON, June 15. The Times’ Bombay correspondent says that at least 20 people, mostly women and children, were incinerated and many were injured in a fire at the Motimahal Cinema Hyderabad. The outbreak originated in the cabin and spread with lightning rapidity to the wooden balcony reserved for Zenana women, who rushed to the exits where they were cut off by the flames enveloping the staircase. Some leaped to the auditorium, where many were crushed in the panic-stricken surge to the doors. The balcony collapsed burying the occupants in debris. The theatre speedily becoming a roaring furnace was completely burnt out. Fourteen bodies were recovered. They were recognisable only by the jewellery. The rescue work was hampered by the enormous crowds almost driven mad by the screams of their dying relatives. The Nizam later visited the ruins, and criticised the inadequacy of the protection against fire. He ordered the Police Commissioner henceforth not to permit buildings to be used for the cinema unless the audiences’ escape was ensured. The Daily Herald’s Madras correspondent says that a Hyderabad official’s wife, by improvising a fire-escape, saved many lives. She tore off her gaily-coloured sari and tied it “to a balcony railing, enabling forty persons, including herself, to slide down to the auditorium, whence they escaped. I