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Show TREMENDOUS' EXOTENDfTiirLONDON- I DURING A BATTLE WITH ANARCHISTS I M Hundreds of Policemen, Assisted by Shrp- I Shooters From the Scots Guards and ' " . by Firemen, are Held Back Until the I Stronghold is Set on Fire I London, Jan. 3. Holding at bay for hours hundreds of policemen, troops and guardsmen, a band of suspected anarchists, almost in the heart of the city, today maintained their defense until the house they had converted into in-to a fortress collapsed under thc attack at-tack of flames and buried the criminals crimi-nals in tho ruins. Six bodies wero found in the wreckage. wreck-age. Several firemen were injured and a number of persons woro wounded wound-ed by the bullets of the besieged. The affair, one of the most remarkable remark-able criminal outbreaks London ever has known, took on tho dimensions of a battle. It begnn early and continued contin-ued until after noon, when the civil authorities at last became masters of the situation. Vast crowds gathered in the narrow streets leading to the scene of activity, while word of thc desperato character of the fighting ran throughout London, causing widespread wide-spread excitement and alarm. At one time the besieging forces called the machine guns, but those wero not brought Into actual use. A member of the ministry. Homo Secretary Winslow Churchill, apr, -peftred- when thc-fighting.-was" at its height. The anarchists, who had rccontly slain two policemen, occupied a four-story four-story house in Sydney street, a narrow nar-row thoroughfare. The police, discovering dis-covering their headquarters, surrounded surround-ed the place and were mob with a volley of shots, two detectives being wounded, one seriously.' Ono hundred shots had been fired when the house caught fire, and the fire brigade was summoned The police, after locating tho mon and anticipating: trouble, had ordered the houses immediately adjoining to be vacated before daylight, and allowed al-lowed no ono to approach within a hundred yards of the scene of the trouble. The police lines had been drawn so tightly that It was soon seen that the Inmates had no chance to escape. es-cape. Since the murder of tho policemen almost the entire police force of London Lon-don has been eugaged in watching for the anarchists. Trouble began this 'morning when Detective Sergeant Leeson, watching these premises, was fired uon and wounded in the lungs. In an almost incredibly short time a cordon of police armed with revolvers approached tho house and was mot with a volley from rapid fire revolvers. re-volvers. Police Superintendent Ottaway took charge of the reinforcements and police po-lice from the various parts of the city I poured In and took up positions commanding com-manding tho house. Whenever the offlcors approached, a volloy of bullets spattered the pavement. pave-ment. A detachment of sixty men, with one officer and throo non-com-missioned officer of the Scots Guard, from tho Tower, arrived later and were served with ball cartridges. They fired a few rounds into tho building. There was a lull for five minutes and then thc besieged replied. re-plied. It was impossible to estimate tho number of the besieged as they were armed with magazlno rifles and fired with great rapidity. 1 The excitement spread throughout the city and enormous crowds flocked to the scene of the affray, although they wero unable to approach near enough to witness the fighting. Detective Sergeant Leeson was examining ex-amining thc suspected building from the rear when ho was shot. His brother offlcors helped him up. a ladder and over a wall at tho back of the yard, while the men in tho house continued to firo upon the parly. As thc situation became more serious, seri-ous, thousands of onlookers were driven back and a spaco hurriedly cleared for a radius of half a mllo about the scene of action. Tho soldiers sol-diers kept up a fusillade directod at tho windows of the house and tho mon within rnsnnnilpd rnntlnnoilfllv. men within responded continuously. Meanwhile, loads of straw were hurried hur-ried to the place for the purpose of starting a llro and smoking out the besieged men. Piles of straw wero lighted near tho building and the flames soon communicated com-municated to the house. Tho firo brigade bri-gade was then summoned and divided divid-ed its quorglcs between putting out-the out-the blaze and trying to flood out tho outlaws by streams of wator thrown through tho windows. A corps of nursos was brought to tho vicinity and they treated thc wounded, among whom were a few spectators, who have been struck by spent bullets. oo |