IN THE AIR.

Taihape Daily Times, 11 February 1918, Page 5

IN THE AIR.

THE RAID ON LONDON.

TRAGIC INCIDENTS.

LONDON, Jan 31. 4 An eye-witness of the destruction by a German bomb of a building crowded with refugees during the air raid, says:

“There was a short, sharp hissing sound, then came the crash, worse than anything I ever heard. Most of us were stunned for the moment. The air seemed full ofAying pieces of concrete, machinery, and parts of machines, which blocked up the exit. We fought a clear way through. It was pitiful to hear the women calling dis_ tractedly for their children and the children for their mothers. Some screamed with their babies killed in their arms. I found two tiny children

standing ten feet from where the explosion occurred, crying with fright, but absolutely untouched. “One great mass of concrete weighing half a ton fell upon a group of four women. Three were killed outright and the fourth pinned down screaming to he released. We could not move the concrete. Meanwhile

the fire came nearer, and a burst or flame drove back the rescuers, igniting their clothes and forcing them to give up the attempt.” A fireman relates that masses of masonry blocked up the avenues of escape. “We found,” he said, “many crouching in corners, dead, where it was obvious that they had tried to es_ cape the flames and smoke. One woman was kneeling down with two little ones huddled to her, ’All dead; likewise other women and children in the wells beneath the maj chines.”

Many Australian and Canadian soL, diers assisted the police in getting out the dead and -wounded and corw veying them to the hospitals. Others tore down the debris with their bare hands where it blocked the exits. One touching incident of the raid was the death of a clergyman well known in a crowded parish, whose custom during the air raids -was to

' ! \ tour tW. shelters and comfort and re- ; \ .V .<* ■* :• assure the occupants. He calmly faced. all risks of tfy'e streets, and his cheery presence .was ahvays heartily we!-* comedy Last night he called at the police station according to his custom, and talked brightly to a crowd of SOO* Then he visited an industrial establishment, which was struck by a bomb, and died there.