An official of the Ministry of Home Security told Reuter after a tour of inspection that damage done in the London area and city was very small, Indeed, It would be quite wrong, hie added, to believe that the raids had caused devastation. or serious upset. Tu the city, certain areas may be roped off today because of wide spread breaking of glass, which has eft the contents of many' shops lying "The public was strictly excluded from the area damaged in Saturday night's raid on London, A large square was roped off, buses were diverted, The whole atmosphere was peaceful, except for the incessant ringing of a number of burglar alarms which were set off by the force of nearby explosions. Comparatively few sight seers tried to visit the scone.
Motor Car Festoons Trees Bursting bombs caused some peculiar effects, For instance, parts a motorcar were seen hanging festooned in trees.
Risking the danger of falling in" cen diary" bombs, four "men dashed from a shelter to tackle a fire in a works. They climbed a ten-foot fate and fought the fames with sand Until the fire-brigade arrived.
Six hundred residents of two blocks of flats went to shelters and shortly afterwards a number of incendiary bombs fell outside the flats and some at the entrance to an occupied shelter.
'A striking feature of the raid was the fact that there was only one casualty in this thickly-populated istrict, He was a warden who burnt his hand while helping to dear with fan incendiary bomb.
Attack on Cinema There was only a, small audience at a cinema at Portsmouth hit in Saturday's raid, but several people, including two women and a. child, were killed, Streets wore fied with week-end shoppers when a Large force of bombers, escorted by Aghters, appeared flying very high, The few raiders that got through encountered intense sufi-aiveratt. fre, and. splitting into small. formations ropped bombs indiscriminately, mostly on shopping and residential districts, In addition to the cinema, bombs fell on a recreation ground. golf course, shopping centre and a hotel.
One of the heroes of the raid was a man who found, bending over son, the supporting wreckage of a basement shelter on his shoulders.
During a tour of the damaged area, the Lord Mayor saw a woman outside liber demolished home, triumphantly holding up a dish of ment—she had saved the Sunday joint.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.