WENT TO THEIR DOOM.

Inangahua Times, Volume II, Issue II, 16 December 1881, Page 2

WENT TO THEIR DOOM.

♦ The French papers publish an account, derived from a gentleman who had just araived from Mexico, of the terrible railway accident which was announced by telegram a short time since. The accident occurred at a spot near Mexico where tbe line, after a steep descent, crosses a deep ravine. Tbe train, which consisted of ttvo cars laden with petroleum and carriages containing 300 soldiers and fifty passengers, and was provided with an engine fore and aft, reached tbe bridge across the ravio. when the driver of tbe *aft engine suddenly observed that^he carriages were dis'"appealing one^TiFter* another beySni it. He tightened the brake, and, witb a French engineer wbo was witb bim jumped off. Tbey now heard a slurp firing in tbe direction of the ravine, and came to the conclusion that the bridge had been cut by brigands. Soon, however, tbey re*. marked an intense light to proceed from the ravine. The firing had stopped It was not night. They ventured closer and saw, to tbeir horrow that the whole wreck of th* tram was in flames. The bridge had fallen under the weight and dragged the whole train after it The barrels containing the petroluem bad been broken, in and only one or two travellers, dreadfully burnt had escaped from the fire. The shooting had been caused by the explosion of **be unfortunate soldiers' cartridges. The one or two persons who had crept away from the fire died within an ho £ after the French engineer arrived at the scene.