TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8069, 1 December 1906, Page 3

TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION.

< TOWN PARTLY DESTROYED. -MANY KILLED AND INJURED. BERLIN. November 2'.'. A great disaster occurred at the Prussian town of Witten, in Westphalia, yesterday. k A tremendous explosion occurred in a robnrite factory there. The factory was shattered and all the buildings in a large part of the town were laid in ruins. More than fifty people were killed. and hundreds were injured. * BERLIN. November 30. Twenty thousand kilogrammes of robnrite were stored in a hollow situated outside and adjoining Witter. An outbreak of tire in the mixing room spread to the packing shed where 4he first explosion occurred. Assistance was immediately sent to the scene, when a second terrific explosion hurled rescuers and spectators in all directions. Many were with panic, but others re- ,, m/iS-d and helped the injured away, despne rumours of immense quantities of unexploded roburite in the vaults. Firemen, nuns, deaconesses and workmen courageously faced the perils and administered first aid. Ambulances and tradesmen's carts conveyed a hundred dangerously wounded and two hundred and fifty less seriously injured to hospitals. Incendiarism is suspected. Several houses in the vicinitywere demolished and windows were smashed. Thirty bodies were recovered, fearfully mutilated and charred. The Kaiser sent a thousand pounds for the relief of the sufferers.