WENT TO THEIR DOOM.
The French papers publish an account derived from a gentleman who has just arrived from Mexico, of the terrible railway accident which was announced by telegram a short lime since. The accident occurred at a spot near Mexico where the line, after a steep descent, crosses a deep ravine. The train, which consisted of two cars laded with petroleum and carriages containing 300 soldiers and 50 passengers, and was provided with an engine fore and aft, reached the bridge across the ravine, when the driver of the aft engine suddenly observed that the cairiagea were disappearing one after another beyond it. He tightened the brake and with a French engineer who was with him jumped off. They now heard a sharp firing in the direction of the ravine,and came to the conclusion that the bridge had been cut by brigands. Soon, however,* they remarked an intense light proceeding from the ravine. The firing had stopped. It was now night. They ventured closer and saw, to'their horror, that the whole wreck of the train was in flames. The bridge had given way under the weight of the first engine, which had dragged the whole train after it. The barrels containing the petroleum had been broken in,and only one or two travellers, dreadfully burnt, had escaped from the fire. The shooting had been produced by the explosion of the unfortunate soldiers’ cartridges. The one or two persons who had crept away from the fire died within an hour after the French engineer arrived on the scene.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/SCANT18811205.2.13
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South Canterbury Times, Issue 2718, 5 December 1881, Page 2
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258WENT TO THEIR DOOM. South Canterbury Times, Issue 2718, 5 December 1881, Page 2
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