BOMB OUTRAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 February 1939, Page 7

BOMB OUTRAGES

EXPLOSIONS AT TUBE STATIONS IN LONDON Ticket Collector Seriously Injured POLICE BLAME IRISH REPUBLICAN SYMPATHISERS HUNT ORGANISED BY 'SCOTLAND YARD By Telegraph.—Press Association —Copyright. 1 (Received This Day. 9.25 a.m.) LONDON, February 3. Explosions believed to have been caused by time bombs hidden in suitcases in the left-luggage offices at Tottenham Court Road and Leicester Square tube stations occured at 6 a.m. today and caused a sensation in London.

A ticket collector at Tottenham Court Road station was seriously injured by a door which was hurled from its hinges. Numerous Travellers were treated for shock. The booking and luggage offices were wrecked. Fortunately few passengers were travelling by train when it occurred.

Special squads of police were rushed up, but normal services were maintained and passengers were permitted to leave the stations, but were prevented from entering. Thousands of business men and women were forced to join trains at other stations.

The simultaneous explosions in both stations flung the woodwork in a shambles in every direction. Shop windows a hundred yards distant were shattered and whole blocks of flats in which hundreds of persons were sleeping were shaken. Telephone cabinets were wrecked and doors burst open. The glazed wall tiles of the booking office were broken and luggage strewn in wild confusion

The water pipes at the Tottenham Court Roaa station burst and flooded the station till the supply was cut off. Heavy columns of smoke poured out of both stations and mingled with the heavy fog, adding to the confusion. The police are convinced that the outrage was the work of Irish republican sympathisers. They believe that the bomb was placed in the Tottenham Court Road station luggage office before it closed at midnight. They took a statement from two women residing in Imperial Mansions overlooking the station who allege that they saw a young man rush out from the tube entrance immedjately after the explosion. Squads of police were posted today in all the principal underground stations throughout London. Tottenham Court Road station was reopened to the public at 9.30 a.m. CHAOS IN BOTH STATIONS Twisted metal, splintered woodwork and broken glass were scattered over both stations and great cracks split the ceiling outside the Leicester Square booking Office. The cloakroom presented a chaotic scene, luggage being burst open and burnt, racks buckled and brickwork blown out. A tobacconist’s shop was completely wrecked. The police, acting on the suspicion that the I.R.A. is responsible, are again combing the Irish quarters.

Henry Long, a porter at Tottenham Court Station said: “There were eight passengers going up the escalator when an explosion occurred. Two women were blown down, and I'ran up to warn

others, and saw a ticket collector lying on the floor with both legs broken. Eye-witnesses at Leicester Square Station said they heard a heavy object dropped, felt the ground tremble and saw a vivid flash, followed by clouds of acrid smoke. TIMING DEVICE FOUND. The police found among the wreckage at Tottenham Court Road station small twisted pieces of metal, probably the timing mechanism of an alarm clock. The Passenger Board officially stated that the staff at Tottenham Court Road noticed a red glow behind the cloakroom door, followed immediately by an explosion, wrecking the interior of the cloakroom, flinging a door across the ticket hall and breaking a ticket collector’s leg. Describing the damage at Leicester Square as more serious, the statement adds that orders were immediately issued that all other cloakrooms should be examined,.. and no more deposits accepted unless they were opened for inspection. A special police guard is being placed at other tube stations. Cloakrooms at main line termini are being examined. ' The authorities immediately informed the Ulster Government, which is intensively inquiring for clues in Northern Ireland, especially among I.R.A. supporters. After a conference of police chiefs. Scotland Yard mobilised all its resources to detect those committing the outrages.