DESPERATE STREET FIGHTING

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 47, 17 August 1911, Page 5

DESPERATE STREET FIGHTING

, DESPERATE STREET FIGHTING. \ ,r TROOPS USE THEIR GUNS. STRIKERS KILLED AND WOUNDED. POLICE BADLY MAULED. By Cable —Press Association—Copyright. Received 10, 9.30 p.m. London, August 16. Five prison vans, conveying sentenced rioters, escorted by Hussars and Scots Greys, were traversing Vauxball road, which is inhabited by seamen and dockers, when their progress was barred by an excited mob. Bricks and stones were hurled at the •oivoy from the side streets and the housetops. Many struck the troopers, sixty being unseated. The crowds were so menacing that the convoy fired six shots. A man named Prendergast, a carter, was shot dead, and Sutcliffe, a carter, died later. Three others, with bullet wounds, were taken to the hospital. The Warwickshires and mounted police hurried to Vauxhal! road. Mean- ' while the van? reached the prison. Thfi arrival of the infantry was the signal for desperate street fighting lasting for an hour, the rioters facing- the police batons with coolness and courage. The police were badly mauled. The police report that yesterday's riot was purely an attack on the police in a district where disorder is chronic and liable to outbursts in times of abnormal excitement.