BOMB OUTRAGE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 March 1941, Page 5

BOMB OUTRAGE

AGAINST BRITISH PARTY FROM BULGARIA ATTEMPT TO KILL MINISTER & STAFF. FATALITIES IN TURKISH HOTEL. ISTANBUL, March 11. I Three persons were killed and at least 10 injured, including the first secretary of the British Legation in Sofia and two girl typists, when two bombs blew out the front of the Pera Palace Hotel immediately after the arrival of the Minister, Mr Rendel, and 68 other Britons from Sofia. Mr Rendel and his daughter were unharmed, but the latter is suffering from shock. Bombs were hidden in the Britons’ suitcases which were among baggage piled in the hotel lobby. Mr Rendel previously told interviewers that the Bulgarians showed the party every courtesy. Two representatives of the Bulgarian Foreign Office and also Mr Earle, the American Minister, had accompanied the British party to the frontier. Police immediately cordoned off the hotel, and a third bomb was found unexploded in another suitcase. It is also reported that an attempt was made to blow up the special train in which the British party travelled. SIX KILLED AND THIRTY INJURED. BOMBS ALMOST CERTAINLY FROM SOFIA. ISTANBUL. March 12. The explosion in the Pera Palace Hotel killed six persons—two Turkish policemen, two hotel porters and two passers by, one of whom was a woman whose head was blown off. Thirty persons were injured. The police are almost certain that the suitcases containing the bombs were placed among the Britons’ luggage while it was still at Sofia. It is believed the bombs were intended to explode in the train. A member of the British party said that one of the many courtesies the Bulgarians extended was non-inspec-tion of the luggage at the frontier.