Evening star., 1921-09-21
800 REPORTED DEAD
ASEP0S|0N WIPES
OUT GERMAN Town
All in Laboratory Believed
Killed in Rapid Succession
of Blasts.
TERRIFIC CONCLUSIONS
FELT 40 MILES AWAY
Whole District Enyeloped in Thick
Smoke-Fire Brigade
Rushed to Spot.
BY the Associa ted Press.

BY the Associated Press.
MAYENCE, Germany, September 21
Eight hundred persons are reported
TO have been killed and many injured
today by explosions in the Badische
Anilinfabrik works at Oppau. near
Frankenthal in the Rhine palatinate.
The disaster appears to have been
one OF the most terrible in the his
tory of industrial catastrophes. The
first explosion occurred when the
shifts were being changed at 1:4J
am. in laboratory where 500 men
. We're working. All of these are re-
ported to have been killed.
Persons killed 35 Miles Away.
This explosion was followed by a
rapid succession of others, which rem
dered assistance to the first victims
impossible.
The conclusions were so terrific
that they We're felt in this city, some
thirty-tive miles from the scene.
while at Mannheim, thirteen miles dis
Iant. almost every window was Shat-
tered and several persons were killed
and thirty-six others injured by de-
bris.
Some persons We're killed at Lud-
Wigshafen, across the river from
..fanheim; many roofs We're blown
of houses and all the windows In
the town were broken at Worms,
while of Oppau itself nothing re-
mains but a heap of ruins.
Windows Broken at Frankfort.
The shock was felt as far as Frank :
fort more than forty miles away, and
many windows We're broken there.
The whole district was enveloped
in thick smoke, which. together with
the cutting of telegraph and tele-
icaf h.
boring towns. hampered the efforts
at assistance.
All the available fire brigades were
rushed to the spot, but the work OF
parties to be exceedingly difficult.
Rescuers who penetrated Oppau. re-
ported finding hundreds of dead and
wounded lying in the debris. The un-
injured inhabitants fled in panic when
the explosions occurred.
Reports from the scene various--
describe the disaster as due to the ex-
plosion of gas or spirits tank.
PARIS, September 21.-One thousand
persons are reported to have been
killed and several thousand others
injured at Oppau, near F'rankenthal,
in the Rhine Palatinate, through ex-
plosions in a chemical products plant,
according TO d MdyehSS ihSSSaSS ~
HE Havas Agency received here to-
d-.y.
The town of Oppau itself was en-
tireiy destroyed by the explosions, the
auvices state.
The force of the shocks were felt Tor
Il distance of nearly fifteen miles
around In Mannheim one person was
J. tli.d and about fifty injured.
The cause of the catastrophe is not
known.
The region in the Rhine Palatlnate
where today's disastrous explosion oc-
CURED was developed during the war
into one of the most extensive and
productive of Germany's chemical
1nunition supply districts. Oppau It
self is comparatively small town
with only a few thousand population.
but nearby are Frankenthal, a con-
sderably larger place. and Ludwigs-
hafen which has a population OF some
$4,000, and which during the war was
accounted the largest of the German
chemical manufacturing plants for
war purposes The chemical works
there are still on a vast scale. 1t Is
about seven miles southeast of Frank
enthal and directly across the Rhine
from Mannheim.
During the war the region was fire.
uuentIy bombarded by allied war
sauadrons, Ludwigshafen being their
particular target