BOLTON TRAGEDY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 57, 11 March 1946, Page 5

BOLTON TRAGEDY

THIRTY-THREE DEATHS STAND COLLAPSES AT SOCCER MATCH Recd. 8 p.m. London, March 9. Thirty-three people were reported killed and there were ma .y serious casualties when a stand collapsed at Bolton during the Bolton-Stoke Cup Tie soccer match. The number of casualties was so high that fire brigade vehicles had to supplement ambulances taking the injured persons to the Bolton Royal Infirmary. After the match had been under way for a quarter of an hour at the Burnden Park ground, Bolton, a huge section of the 65.000 spectators on the slope near the stand began to sway ominiously. Without warning they crashed dowij on the other spectators in front of them like a terrible irresistible tidal wave, creating a swirling pool of humanity. Bodies in seconds were piled four deep. Official casualty figures to late on Saturday evening are 33 dead and three seriously injured. Five hundred were treated on the ground for minor injuries.

The referee 26 minutes after the accident decided to resume the game to distract the crowd’s emotions while dead and injured were extracted from the pile of humanity. Thousands of people who were shut out when the ground was filled and the gates closed caused the disaster, said an official statement. Fifteen thousand waited outside when the enclosure was comfortably filled and further admissions were stopped. Thousands then rushed the fence, overwhelming the police, and pulled it: down. The mass of people surged forward again and the crush barriers, which were of steel, collapsed. The Press Association said the death-roll is believed to be the highest in the history of British football. The only parallel incident is the collapse of a stand at the Glasgow Rangers’ ground in 1902, causing the death of 25. The Football Association will hold an inquiry next week. An official Government investigation is also likely.