Africans Die In Police Raid

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30979, 8 February 1966, Page 17

Africans Die In Police Raid

f.N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) JOHANNESBURG, Feb. 7. Ten Africans were crushed and trampled to death when police raided a non-white Johannesburg night club yesterday.

They died when more than 100 Africans stampeded down a narrow flight of stairs as police entered the club, the police said. The club was raided between 2 and 3 a.m. after a policeman was assaulted by an African he tried to arrest there.

jammed on the stairs, possibly in an effort to dislodge them.

Throughout the commotion, the dogs--Alsatians, it is believed—kept up the panic of the crowd with their barking.

The police used a dog when entering the club and also used dogs to break up a crowd which gathered outside.

The police were stoned by the crowd and an African was wounded by a shot fired. Ten other Africans injured in the crush were admitted to hospital. The dance hall, called the Flamingo Club, is in Fordsburg, a rundown section of Johannesburg that the authorities have not yet managed to zone on strict racial lines according to the Government’s apartheid policies. The population of the district is mostly Indian and Malay. The club, situated on the second storey of a two-storey building, is reserved for Africans on Saturday nights. Witnesses said that some of the police had attempted to club and kick the persons