EARTHQUAKE TERROR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 338, 25 April 1928, Page 1

EARTHQUAKE TERROR

Greek Catastrophe CORINTH CITY LEVELLED (United P.A'—By Telegraph — Copyright) British OUicial Wireless Reed. 11.50 a.m. RUGBY, Thursday. rE latest information regarding the earthquake shocks experienced in many parts of Greece on Sunday night is that Corinth suffered most severely, and was almost completely destroyed.

Out of 1,000 houses only about 50 ar e standing, and these are marked with fissures. Neighbouring villages are also in ruin. Calamaki was completely demolished. and Loutraki, a resort opposite Corinth, was also seriously damaged. The dead bodies recovered number and the injured 100, and still many are missing. British sailors who happened to be in the port of Corinth were organised into rescue parties, and gave valuable assistance. Sir Percy Loraine, British Minister at Athens, yesterday telegraphed to the Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet, requesting that help should be sent, and this met with an immediate response. The flotilla-leader Stuart and the supply ship Perthshire were at once dispatched from Malta, and are being followed by the air-craft-carrier Eagle, and the cruisers Ceres and Calypso, while the hospital ship Maine has been ordered, to collect the necessary stores at Malta and then proceed to Corinth. NOT ANCIENT CORINTH (United P A. —By Telegraph — Copyright) (Australian P.A.—United Service) LONDON, Tuesday. The city of Corinth, which was devastated, is not the Corinth where St. Paul preached, but the new city three miles away, built to replace the one destroyed by

the earthquake of 1858. Only the ruins of the Temple of Apollo remain to indicate the classical city. Many dead bodies have already been found, and the injured number hundreds. The latter would have been much more numerous had not the inhabitants had long warning. Thirteen thousand Corinthians spent last night in the open. The communications connecting the peninsula with the mainland are interrupted. The walls of the prison at Corinth were broken down and some of the prisoners escaped to the country. The panic was intensified by a lightning-like flash at the time of the earthquake. This is believed to have been due to a short-circuit at the central electricity station in Corinth. FLEEING FROM TERROR Thirteen further shocks were recorded to-day. Rain is falling heavily. Many people desire to settle elsewhere, and the railways have begun to transport some of them free of cost. Others are trekking along the roads and abandoning all their property in order to escape the terror of further shocks. Cabinet Ministers who visited the Corinth district estimate the damage at £2,500,000. The superintendent of the telegraph service displayed great heroism. Though his wife and children perished in their collapsed house, and he was injured, he remained at his post.