A VIGIL has been held in Keighley to mark the anniversary of the dropping of atomic bombs on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
People gathered in Town Hall Square on Saturday, 77 years to the day since the bombing of Hiroshima.
Sylvia Boyes – of Keighley Justice, Peace and Environment Network, which organised the vigil – says: "The dropping of the first atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6 and Nagasaki on August 9, 1945, saw more than 200,000 people die – most of them civilians.
"With readings and reflection, we remembered all those who died, suffered and continue to suffer as a result of nuclear bombs and the nuclear age."
Amongst those at the vigil was Keighley town mayor Councillor Luke Maunsell, who read out an annual peace declaration from Hiroshima's mayor, Kazumi Matsui.
Cllr Maunsell says: "The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima remain a horrific turning point in global war and something which we rightly remember every year.
"Regardless of anyone's views on nuclear weapons as a deterrent, the heartbreak and suffering which was caused by these acts haunt this world even now and all efforts need to continue to be made to ensure that such destruction never occurs again."
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