World

Poland holds memorial service for plane crash victims

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-18 09:40

People gather at Pilsudski square in Warsaw, April 17, 2010. A public memorial service has begun for the 96 victims of last weekend's air crash that killed Poland's president, drawing tens of thousands of mouners to a square in the heart of Warsaw. [Xinhua]

WARSAW - Hundreds of thousands of Poles gathered in Warsaw's main square here Saturday to mourn late President Lech Kaczynski, his wife Maria, and the 94 others killed in an April 10 plane crash.

The public ceremony in Pilsudski Square started at noon. Scores of people waved white-and-red Polish flags with black ribbons of mourning attached to them.

A military bugler sounded a funeral air in front of the standing crowd thronging the square, named after the country's 1918 independence leader and used as the site for national services.

An actor read out the name of each victim, starting with the first couple.

Relatives of the crash victims, including the president's twin brother and former prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and the presidential couple's only child, daughter Marta, attended the service.

Others at the memorial included former President Lech Walesa, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and acting President Bronislaw Komorowski.

The memorial was on the first of two days of ceremonies in mostly Roman Catholic Poland and was to be followed by a funeral Mass for the first couple at St. John's Cathedral at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT).

A Polish national flag flies in front of the stage for a commemoration ceremony for the plane crash victims at the Pilsudski square in Warsaw, April 17, 2010. [Xinhua]