BIG GUN ACCIDENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 335, 23 June 1911, Page 8

BIG GUN ACCIDENT.

THREE MEN SERIOUSLY INJURED. By Cable—Press Association—Couvright Auckland, Last Night. A serious accident occurred at Albert Park this afternoon in connection with the Coronation celebrations as a result of a big gun exploding. At 12 o'clock the A battery of the N.Z.F.A., under Major Rherson, took up a position on the crown of the hill overlooking the city for the purpose of firing a salute of 101' guns. Proceedings were well under way when an accident occurred in the net of firing one of the guns, as the result, of which three men (Sergeant T. Purdy, Bombardier C. West and GunneT A. Bartlett) were more or less seriously injured. Just how the accident happened no one who witnessed the accident seemed quite in a position to say, but Gunner Bartlett, who was the most seriously injured man, had his arm badly mutilated, three fingers being blown right off, one of them falling into the lap of a spectator sitting on a garden bench some distance away. Sergeant Purdy and Bombardier West were both injured about the fact. The injured men were conveyed to a private hospital. A possible explanation of the accident vouchsafed was that the gun was being loaded, and the breach had not been closed properly when the exlosion occurred, blowing the breech out.