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As those killed were being carried back through the streets, an angry mob of people went on the rampage. Government offices and banks were attacked and damaged, and five Europeans were beaten to death. One Miss Marcella Sherwood, manager of the City Mission School, who had been living in Amritsar district for 15 years working for the Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, was attacked by a mob in a narrow street, the Kucha Kurrichhan. Beaten, she was rescued by local Indians who hid her from the mob and moved her to the fort.
The civil authorities, unnerved by the unexpected fury of the mob, called in the army the same afternoon. The ire of the people had by and large spent itself, but a sullen hatred against the British persisted. There was an uneasy calm in the city on 11 April. In the evening that day, Brigadier-General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer born ironically at Murree in the Punjab hills, commander of the 45th Infantry Brigade at Jalandhar, arrived in Amritsar incensed at the attack on an English lady, instructed the troops of the garrison regarding reprisals against Indians.