Terrible Earthquake.

Feilding Star, Volume IV, Issue 45, 18 September 1883, Page 2

Terrible Earthquake.

(Per Mail Steamer). The town ot Casamicciola, in the Island of Ischia, was destroyed by an earthquake on the night of the 2Bth July. It is estimated thatsooo persons perished. The majority of the upper classes were at the theatre, where the scene was one of horror. The curtain had just risen when a tremendous shock was felt, followed by a fearful roar, and tho ground rocked like a ship in a storm. A great cry of terror arose from the audience, who were thrown in a heap, and a great number were buried beneath the timhers of the building which fell on them. Meanwhile every building in the town had* collapsed. The hotel Piccolo Sentinell sauk into the earth and was buried with many of the inmates, and fifteen hundred ton. of chloride of lime were poured over the ruins, thus k c>nverting Casamicciola into a vast cemetery. The neighboring towns of. Farn and Lucco were also greatly damaged, and the loss of life reached 2000, divided Detween both places. Cm the night of tae disaster the scene .was weirdly terrible, when hundreds of haif-naked men a 'd "women, wild wiih horror and grief,, ran to and fro, among the ruins with torches, searching tor missing friends. Ifor . days tlie stench; of. decaying flesh, I U-ytwi^s'tahi-.n usl J _, ,x was almost' unbearable.