Shocking Disaster.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3623, 13 March 1906, Page 3

Shocking Disaster.

NEARLY TWELVE HUNDRED MINERS KILLED.

Paris, March u.

A fire, which occurred at a depth of 700 ft, led to a terrific explosion in a mine at Courrieres, in the north of France, at 7 o’clock on Saturday morning. The cages were destroyed, and tbe cuttings in the mine were filled with poisonous fumes. Three galleries became a vast furnace of flames, which leapt to' the pit’s mouth.

Seventeen hundred and ninetyfive miners were buried. Four hundred were rescued.

The latest estimate is that eleven hundred and ninety-three persons have been killed.

Agonising scenes were witnessed at the head of the pit, where women relatives and friends of the entombed miners had gathered. When the news spread that the galleries were caving in, further attempts at rescue were abandoned.

THE LATEST.

AWFUL SCENES UNDER-

GROUND.

The latest roll in connection with the disaster is a follows: Rescued, 591. Asphyxiated or burned to death, 1219.

The recent heavy rains in the north of France produced land slips and apparently these affected the mines.

First accounts suggested that twenty miners were killed. Later in the afternoon further rescue was abandoned and the extent of the disaster was realised, though there were faint hopes that some had taken refuge in the lateral galleries. Many were rescued, but they were frightfully burnt. The chief engineer led a band of fifty rescuers. He declared the scenes below are awful. A second rescue party reached a depth of five hundred feet and heard their mates calling at the six hundred feet level. The lower galleries were inaccessible.