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Show ruin FOLLOWS ITALIAN STORM KNTIRE HILL 18 LEVELED BY LIGHTNING WHICH SET8 OFF TONS OF EXPLOSIVE8 Garrison of Soldiers Is Hit And Many Are Injured And Kllledj Hospitals Taxed to Capacity Spezta, Italy. Tho ontlro garrison of several hundred soldiers statlonod at Falconnra fort near horo. In tho gulf of Genoa, narrowly escaped death Thursday. A bolt 0f lightning struck tho fort nnd penetrated Into tho maga-zlnos maga-zlnos in which wore stored 1C00 tons of tho most powerful explosives. So powerful pow-erful was the blast that tho ontlro hill upon which tho fort stands wbb blown away. Debris and fragrants of tho bodies of victims were scattorod ovor a wido radius. Physicians and Faclstl from tho surrounding sur-rounding villages as well as hundreds of tho poasantry hurried to tho sceno of tho explosion ns soon as thoy had recovered from tho panic which It had caused. First observations rovealed no trace of any survivors and reports thnt the ontlro gnrrlson had been killed kill-ed wero circulated. Tho first fow hours of rescue work disponed tho thoory. Sovonty bodies o far have boen rocovored. Hundreds Hun-dreds of woundod nro in tho hospitals and this leaves only a comparatively small number unaccountod tor. Hospitals aro bolng tnxod to capacity cap-acity to caro for tho victims and nil tho nvailablo military In this soctlon Is engnged In rescue work. Tho oxplosion enmo while n heavy storm was In progress. Somo poa's-nnto poa's-nnto wore in tho fields trying to protect pro-tect their crops from tho violence of tho elements and It is from these thnt tho story of tho blast has been obtalnod. Tho lightning, thoy say, had boon particularity heavy In tho vicinity of tho olovnted fortress nnd Its freakish freak-ish pyrotechnics attracted the attention atten-tion of tho (lold workors. Suddenly an unusually sharp flash was notlcod. An Instant later a blast shook tho country sldo for miles. It stunned tho watchers In tho fields. When they discovered dis-covered possession of their senses they found that only n scattered heap of earth smoking dobrls covered placo which the lofty fortress had occuplod. Tho hill was lovolod. Tho government is making overy effort to rollove tho population of tho explosion district as tho people have bocomo holplessly pnnlc strlckrn ns tho result of the destruction which tho lightning caused. Spozln, on tho Gulf of Genoa, is ono of tho most strongly fortified fortresses for-tresses on tho Itnllan coast. It has n population of about CO000. In Its harbor har-bor Shelley tho poot lost his life. |