30 persons die in eruption of Mount Vesuvius
Dreaded flow of lava subsiding
By Eleanor Packard, United Press staff writer
Naples, Italy – (March 25)
More than 30 persons were killed and several score injured this week as tons of flaming boulders, brimstone cinders and huge walls of scorching lava poured from the crater of Mount Vesuvius, crunching and searing everything for miles around.
Most of the deaths were the result of crashing roofs, which, buried under tons of heavy volcanic ash, toppled in during the night on sleeping citizens, the Allied Military Government said.
The volcano still belched smoke and ashes thousands of feet into the air, but the dreaded flow of lava had subsided considerably.
Prof. Giuseppe Imbò, director of the Royal Italian Observatory on Vesuvius, said the volcano still continues in an “abnormal condition,” but he declined to comment on whether it had passed the critical stage.
The bodies of 26 dead have already been dug from the wreckage of homes and buildings, the AMG said.
In the province of Salerno, 12 people were killed at Nocera and nine others at Pagani, due to collapsing roofs, AMG officials said. In Naples Province, three persons were killed at Terzigno by stones flying from the crater of the volcano.