Aberfan disaster: Marking 54 years since disaster struck the south Wales village
Today marks the 54th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.
At 9:13am on the 21st of October 1966, disaster struck the south Wales village of Aberfan when 150,000 tonnes of coal waste slid down a hillside, engulfing Pantglas Junior School and a number of neighbouring houses.
116 children and 28 adults were killed.
It was one of the worst industrial disasters Britain has ever seen.
It was the last day of term. 240 children and nine teachers were waiting for their first lesson to begin when a landslide of mud and debris flooded into the classroom.
Phillip Thomas was a ten-year-old pupil at the school and one of the only few to survive the tragedy.
Although Thomas survived, he was left needing hospital treatment for years to treat a variety of serious injuries.
Another survivor was eight year old Jeff Edwards.
He said that the events of this tragic day had affected him all his life.
Bodies were recovered from the rubble in the days after the disaster by emergency services, rescue teams, tip workers and local residents.
Makeshift mortuaries were opened in local chapels where fathers came to identify their children.
The villagers of Aberfan held a mass funeral six days after the disaster.
A tribunal into the Aberfan disaster found that The National Coal Board ignored repeated warnings that the coal slurry would not be able to withstand a period of heavy rain during the winter, and was very likely to be a danger to the school.
They found that the National Coal Board were to blame for the disaster and the counsel admitted, “It need not have happened and should not have happened if proper site investigations had been carried out beforehand.”
Pantglas School has now been turned into a memorial garden to honour those who lost their lives in the Aberfan disaster.