ALMERIA CANNONADE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 129, 2 June 1937, Page 11

ALMERIA CANNONADE

SEVERE DAMAGE

HIGH DEATH-ROLL FEARED

LONDON, June 1. The Almeria correspondent of "The Times" says that the coast batteries fired 70 shells in reply to the bombardment by the German ships, forcing them to withdraw from the shore. Some of the attackers were enveloped in smoke, believed to be the results of hits from the batteries. When the cannonading began multitudes of panic-stricken people rushed into the streets. There the terror was increased by houses and walls crashing on all sides, and by nauseating fumes from the bursting shells. Many persons were injured by falling debris, and,a similar fate overcame those remaining in the houses. Numerous dead lie buried in the ruins, and portions of mutilated bodies are to be seen in the streets.

It is feared that the death-roll, when complete, will be high. Four of the chief streets suffered heavily, some shells each destroying three or four houses. The telephone and electric light systems were partially destroyed, and the sixteenth-century cathedral was badly damaged. Some of the1 shells were of eleven-inch calibre and thirtynine inches long.