France: An Unusual Silence

When the firemen arrived, they were struck by an unusual silence. Only a few flames could be seen flickering through the roof of the fortress-like, cinder-block building, and the men assumed that it was a minor fire. But when they pried open an emergency exit at Le Cinq-Sept, a popular dance hall for youths in Saint-Laurent-du-Pont near Grenoble, two of the firemen fainted. Bodies were stacked before them in ghastly contortions of agony. Fists were literally fried against the locked door. Impressions of hands, arms and heads were fused into the cement...

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