JAPANESE BOMB CROWDED STATION

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 191, 30 August 1937, Page 5

JAPANESE BOMB CROWDED STATION

— Per Press Association-

Victims are Mostly Women and Children CONFUSION OF DEAD BODIES

(By Telegraph

-Copyright).

(Received 30, 9.45 a.m.) SHANGHAI, Aug. 29. The casualty list at Nantao, the Chinese ^ty area of Shanghai, after an air raid by Japanese planes was 600 killed and 1200 wnmdecL Later, renewed Japanese artillery bombardment of tbe eouth station killed 300 and wounded 700 Chinese civilians and ehook the international area, which was patrolled by Welsh Fusiliers. The Japanese warships during the morning shelled the north station area, and Chinese guns replied. Japanese 'bombing 'planes concentrated on the south station, the Kiangnan arsenal and the local administrative buildings on the duter fringes of Nantao. The inhabitants were thrown into panic, land thousands stampedcd towards the French coneession, where locked gates were opened only for ambnlances. The bombs started hnge fires. The raiders also attaeked Pootung, Chapei and other areas, and fonr bombs struck the south station, which was crowded with refugees awaiting trains and whose ranks were swelled by panicBticken fugitives from elsewhere. The bombs demolished the traeks and sheds and littered a-quarter of a mile with the mangled bodies of the dead and dying. The victims were mostly women and children, who were blown klong the railway lines with severed legs, arms and heads scattered over yards. The ambulance service did its utmost amid confusion. Rickshaws rushed those injured to the hospital, which was already over-erowded with Chinese soldiers. Japanese warships are still shelling Nantao. British doctors attending the easualties appeal to the British Medical Association to use all possible political pressure to prevent the Japanese bombers' inhuroan slaught'er of women, children and babies. The Japanese Naval Spokesman says the south station was bombed owing to the pressure of Chinese soldiers, and would again be bombed if these continued to assemble. The Chinese Military Spokesman declares that there are no 'Chinese regulars at Nantao but merely members of the Peace Preservation Corps. Chinese artillery shelled Hongkew, directing its fire on the main inarket, which is surrounded by Japanese' clubs and institution. Several were killed and wounded. In North phina, the Japanese have completed the consolidation Of strategic positions in the foothills on the Lianshiang front, soutliwest of Peiping. Better weather will enable tliern to conclude thcir jdriye towards Suiyuan. ' ,