TRAIN FALLS INTO A RIVER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 132, 25 November 1911, Page 5

TRAIN FALLS INTO A RIVER.

CO TO 80 PEOPLE REPORTED BROWNED. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. Paris, November 23. A train was crossing tho Thourt river, when the whole of it, except three carriages, was engulfed in the violent torrent. The passengers are seeking refuge on the top of a carriage, and desperate efforts at rescue continue. Paris, Later. A flood, weakened the buttresses of the railway bridge, which collapsed, and the Saumur train fell into the river. It is reported that 'between sixty and eighty persons were drowned, including the driver and fireman.

FURTHER DETAILS. TWENTY-TWO DROWNED. Received 25, T2.IX) a.m. Paris, November 24. The bridge at Saumur collapsed while the train was crossing it. Of fifty persons in the train, twentytwo were drowned, including seven railway officials. Crowds stood helplessly watching the survivoirer' efforts to maintain a precarious hold on the wreckage, the flood sweeping ajway one after another. Meanwhile heroic rescuers were making desperate attempts to save lives. M. (Boullet, a wine merchant, perished in an endeavor to save liis wife, who was among the drowned. The train driver was saved hy holding to the tail of a pig, swimming ashore ultimately. ' Military engineers rescued some halfdead survivors from a roof. A similar accident took place on the same line in 1010, when 27 were drowned.