BILBOA BRIDGE WRECK.

Gisborne Times, Volume X, Issue 959, 4 August 1903, Page 2

BILBOA BRIDGE WRECK.

LOCOMOTIVE AND CARRIAGES FALL FIFTY FEET. A HORRIBLE SCENE. RIVER REDDENED BY BLOOD. By; Telegraphy (Per R.M.S. Sonoma at Auckland.) San Francisco, July 16. A despatch from Madrid, dated June 26th, states that 14 bodies and 50 injured persons have been extracted from the wreck of the Bilboa train, overturned at Nejerilla river last night. According to official information 30 persons were killed and 60 others seriously injured. The train, which was composed of two engines and sixteen coaches, was crossing the bridge when the coupling between the engines broke. The second engine left the track, and was followed by the entire train into the bed of the river. Fortunately the water was low.

The nearest medical help was a mile and a half away, and tho persons least injured aided the others, and did all in their power until tho arrival of tho relief train. The train fell 50 feet, the coaches piling up in a mass of splintered wood and iron. The scone was described as horrifying, and many corpses were carried down the stream, which was actually reddened by the blood. It was found impossible to extricate numbers of the injured who were pinioned under the wreckage. The railway guard was arrested in the act of pillaging the dead, and narrowly escaped lynching by the citizens. It is believed that the official figures as to the dead and injured are too Bmall.