TRAIN DERAILED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 57, Issue 248, 31 July 1937, Page 7

TRAIN DERAILED

DISASTER NEAR PARIS. THIRTY DEAD, 50 INJURED. HOLIDAYMAKERS AND PILGRIMS <United Pres? Association —Copyright.) (Received This Day, 9.55 a.m.) ■ PARIS, July 30. Thirty persons were killed and 50 injured when the Paris - St. Etienne express was derailed at VilleneuveSt. Georges, just outside Paris, at 11.15 last night. The first four coaches were smashed to pieces. Several of the victims were burned in the blazing wreckage. The train was crowded with holidaymakers and pilgrims returning from Liseux. It was at first believed that jammed points caused the engine to overturn when running at 50 miles an hour, outside a doctor’s garden, where the dead were played and the injured given first aid. ' Later it- was officially announced that the disaster was due to the points being wrongly set. Wooden carriages were telescoped between steel cars. Half of the Paris fire brigades helped in the rescue, and troops from nearby barracks assisted. Two pointsmen have been charged with involuntary homicide and breach of the railway regulations.