BELFAST OUTBREAK.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1921, Page 5

BELFAST OUTBREAK.

VIOLENT FIGHTING.

HOMES SET ON FIRE.

DEATH ROLL GROWING.

•j Telegraph.— Press Assn —Copyright.

London, August 30.

Gunmen and snipers in Belfast maintained a fusilade until after midnight. The street lamps were extinguished, and the only light was the blaze from houses set on fire by the mobs. There was further shooting to-day. Violent fighting occurred in Belfast this afternoon. A laborer named Cash was shot dead. There was also several serious casualties. Sandbag shelters were used in some streets. The total casualties since yesterday are three killed and 14 injured. The disturbance is growing in intensity, and the death roll has been extended. A man named Kennedy and a little girl, Watson, weft killed by snipers’ bullets. A hunger strike has begun among the 400 internees in the Spike Island internment camp. Dublin. The men are demanding unconditional release. Rioting continued at Belfast during the evening. An area of two square miles if? now in the grip of gunmen. The day’s casualties thus far are five killed and fifty wound.

The firing was particularly severe in York Street. Desultory firing took place in the centre of the city. Skirmishes were frequent between Sinn Fein gunmen and the police, but the gunmen kept sniping from their bases with so much adroitness that they could not be captured. Annie Watson, aged five, was watching the guerilla fighting when a sniper’s chance bullet struck her and she fell dead on the pavement. Men and women were shot on the way to business. A fleet of armored' cars swept the district to deal with the snipers, but the latter returned to their post© or behind sandbag barricades directly the cars had passed. Tramcars in the danger zone ran the gauntlet of the fire, the passenger* being forced to lie on the floor to escape bullets. The Sinn Feiners again used bombs in several attempts to fire houses. Received August 31, 5.5 p.m. London, August 31. The Belfast correspondent of the Daily News attributes the rioting to Unionist snipers, who compelled Nationalists to join ia order to defend themselves and families from being shot.