HEAVY DEATH ROLL

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 June 1942, Page 3

HEAVY DEATH ROLL

4 TREMENDOUS EXPLOSION IN LONDON UNDETECTED BOMB DOZEN HOUSES DEMOLISHED. IN THICKLY-POPULATED AREA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, June 7. Twenty-eight persons were killed or are missing as a result of a tremendous explosion which occurred in Gurney Street, near the Elephant and Castle, demolishing a dozen houses and damaging many other buildings. At least one hundred persons were injured. The explosion, which is officially stated to have been that of an undiscovered bomb, made a crater 120 feet across and twenty feet deep at the heart of what was once a three-storey building. Not one family in the whole of Gurney Street has escaped without loss. Under dim flares more than 500 men, women and children worked through the night searching for victims which were still entombed under the wreckage. These included at least 10 children. The crushed bodies of six children were discovered under debris in the roadway. The blast of the explosion affected about 200 houses, while five threestorey buildings crumpled.

The scene of the tragedy is one of the most populous parts of London, with houses apd shops packed closely, and the Elephant and Castle is normally London’s busiest intersection.