Poland marked the minute their president, his wife and 94 others were killed in a plane crash, as the country began a weekend of mourning.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles descended on Warsaw’s Pilsudski Square for a massive outdoor memorial to victims of last Saturday’s plane crash in Russia.
At 8.56am (6.56am GMT) this morning the country came to a standstill, while church bells were pealed and sirens sounded.
At the same time a week before, Polish President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria died when their plane went down in woodland near Smolensk airport.
There were no survivors of the crash, which also killed key government figures, including the chief of the army and the head of the national bank.
A two-minute silence was held at noon in Pilsudski Square followed by a reading of all 96 victims’ names as the late presidential couple’s only child and Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the president’s twin brother, looked on.
Former President Lech Walesa, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski and prime minister Donald Tusk were among those present. “Our world went crashing down for the second time at the same place,” Komorowski said of the crash.
The victims had been been en route to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Katyn massacre, in which thousands of Polish soldiers were executed by the Soviet secret police.
The square and a neighbouring park have been fitted with huge TV screens to relay the services to the crowd and large photos of the all victims have been scattered across the site.
The city authorities have banned alcohol sales today and provided free transport and parking to make it easier for people to attend.
A public mass in memory the president and his wife was held at the city’s St. John’s Cathedral early evening before their coffins were taken to Krakow for an overnight vigil, ahead of tomorrow’s state funeral.
Nearly 100 foreign dignitaries, including US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, are set to attend the ceremony, however a number of world leaders have been forced to cancel because of the flight restrictions over Europe caused by Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud.
So far delegations from India, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, New Zealand and Pakistan have confirmed they cannot attend. Today all airports in Poland remained closed to flights above 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) because of the ash cloud.
Tomorrow’s state funeral will begin at 2pm (12pm GMT) with a Mass at the 13th-century St. Mary’s Basilica. A funeral procession will then carry first couple the across the Old Town to the historic Wawel Cathedral to be interred.
Their Tupolov U-154M collided with trees after its pilots reportedly ignored warnings not to land in foggy conditions. The chief of Poland’s military Franciszek Gagor, Slawomir Skrzypek, who had been central bank governor since 2007, and Deputy Foreign Minister Andrzej Kremer were also among the dead.
Prime minister Tusk has described the crash as the “most tragic event in Poland’s post-war history”.
Source:The Times
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