7 JANUARY 1911, Page 9

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

WE give in another column a detailed account of the remarkable affray in Stepney on Tuesday. It had come to the knowledge of the police that some of the Houndsditch murderers had taken refuge in a house in Sidney Street, Mile End Road. In the early hours of Tuesday morning the block of buildings was surrounded, and the innocent inhabitants were removed from the suspected house. As soon as it was daylight a body of police advanced, and one of them threw a brick through a window. There was immediately a reply from the automatic pistols within, and one of the police, Sergeant Leeson, was wounded. The party retired, and after this no further attempt was made at a direct assault on the house. Reinforcements of armed police arrived to help in blocking the various streets leading to the house, and at about ten a detachment of Scots Guards arrived from the Tower. Some of these, stationed in a house opposite, fired repeatedly into the rooms in which the . criminals were hiding, but apparently with little effect.