Will Lovins

At 9.15 am on Friday, October 21, 1966, a waste tip above the mining village of Aberfan in the valleys of Wales in the UK began to slide down the mountainside, firstly destroying a farm cottage and killing all its occupants. It then approached Pantglas Junior School, where the children had only just returned to their classes after their morning assembly. The waste tip had been created on a mountain slope which overlaid a natural spring. Heavy rain led to a build-up of water within the tip which caused it to suddenly slide downhill as a slurry. The slide - containing over 150,000 tonnes of slurry - then engulfed the school and about 20 houses in the village, killing 144 people, including 116 school children and 28 adults. News of the tragedy travelled fast and hundreds of people stopped what they were doing and headed to Aberfan to try and help with the rescue. It was futile, as nobody was rescued alive after 11am and it was nearly a week before all the bodies were recovered. Queen Elizabeth visited the town in the wake of the disaster. It remains to this day one of the few displays of public emotion from the usually stoic monarch as she broke down in tears at the sheer tragedy. xitter.cf/messages/media/1…