Quotes

I went to Pantglas on that day. I was 13. I will remember always and never forget my friends whom I lost, and how I survived. I still cry.

Linda, Australia

I was a part-time fireman in Newport. I was called out to go to Aberfan.

We were sent to the top of the tip that collapsed to pump out water.

I will never forget it the smell - stayed with me for days.

Glen, Bush, Wales

A day I shall never forget.

I was on duty as a telephonist at the Cardiff Telephone Exchange and was taking emergency calls etc.

All the telephonists were in tears and the pathos of the calls was unimaginable.

Noreen Powell, Wales

Remembering the people of Aberfan, my mum's home village. She was born there in 1909. My auntie used to clean Pantglas Junior school and I used to go there with her when I was a child.

I still have a cousin in Aberfan.

Vin, UK

We had been to Brecon for the day and were driving back home to Merthyr.

No radio in the car so we were surprised to see police stopping cars at the top of Cefn Coed to check on our address.

They told us about the awful accident and said they were only letting residents into Merthyr.

My cousin was a teacher at Pantglas Junior school.

We went home and waiting anxiously to hear if she had survived.

It was a day or two before we found out that her students' bus was late so she was in the staff room and not her usual classroom.

The classroom was completely demolished and she survived but had spent the time helping with the rescue.

My aunt was district nurse and was on the frontline of recovery but said she had never experienced such heartbreaking sights in her entire career.

We cried a lot and today we've shed another tear. An entire generation wiped out in minutes. So sad.

Gareth Williams, USA

I was a 14-year-old living in Tonyrefail some 10 miles from Aberfan.

I was in school that day and remember the day well, for I went home lunchtime and a neighbour called me to tell me what had happened.

I went back to school and looked down the valley at our local colliery tip, thinking, "How could something like that move"? I will never forget that day.

Howard Bartlett, Wales