BIG DEATH ROLL.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 September 1921, Page 5

BIG DEATH ROLL.

DISASTER IN GERMANYFIFTEEN HUNDRED KILLED.

VAST DAMAGE DONE,

By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyrlgtt,

Received September 23, 7.25 p.m. Paris, Sept. 22.

The Oppau district, the scene of the disastrous explosion, resembles a tract of country bombarded by big guns and then swept by an earthquake. The scene of the central explosion is a funnel-shaped hole 130 yards square and 45 yards deep, while elsewhere there are big craters filled with uprooted trees and sections of roofs, beneath which arms, legs and heads of victims *are continually found. The fields for miles around resemble shambles. A detachment of French soldiers is on duty at Oppau. Every building in Oppau. without exception, has collapsed or has been unroofed. Ludwigshafen is a vast hospital. All the schools have been converted into hospitals and mortuaries, as 850 bodies have already been removed from the ruins. It is believed the death roll will be 1500, and the damage is at least £7,600,000.—Au5.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

magnitude of explosion. CHILDREN AMONGST THE DEAD. THE MONOPOLY IN EXPLOSIVES. Received Sept. 23, 8.40 p.m. Berlin, Sept. 23. The magnitude of the explosion can be gathered from the fact that in addition to 4000 tons of explosives nine gasometers went hurling into the air, each containing 50,000,000 cubic metres of gas. The disaster has given the chemical industry such a serious blow that its restoration will require as much energy as its creation.

Received Sept. 23, 8.40 p.m. Paris, Sept. 23. The French army of occupation is already supervising relief. The men work in green poison gas, which is overclouding everything, necessitating the Wearing of masks. The dead include large numbers of children. The surviving families are camping in the fields. Received Sept. 23, 8.40 p.m. London, Sept. 23. Major Lefebure, organiser of the wartime inter-Allied commission of chemical and munition experts, writing in the Daily News, emphasises the danger to any nation having a monopoly of the world’s supplies of potential explosives and poison gas. He adds: “I fail to see how any disarmament attempts at the Washington Conference or the League of Nations can be effective unless this problem is dealt with. If the disaster serves to attract world attention to the hitherto ignored issue of chemical disarmament it will have a far-reaching and beneficial result in the world.” —Aus.-N.Z. Cable Assn.

MANY INJURED. RECOVERINGTHE BODIES. Berlin, Sept. 22. The explosion killed numbers of French soldiers who were guarding the Oppau Road, and also injured numbers who were boating on the Rhine. The estimated damage to the analine works is 150 million marks.

Rescue parties are searching the ruine Seven hundred and fifty bodies have been recovered. The injured exceed the first estimates. Already 2500 have been trated. The whole available medical personnel of the French army of the Rhine is assisting. The French High Commissioner has also arranged for the distribution of food and given 75,000 marks to the trades unions to assist in the relief of distress.