60 years since the Aberfan coal waste disaster
On October 21, 1966, 144 people, 116 of them children, were killed when a mound of coal waste collapsed at the Merthyr Vale Colliery causing a landslide that engulfed Pantglas Junior School and some 20 houses in Aberfan, Wales.
Rescue workers still toil in the black slime, hours after it had slipped down the man-made mountain of coal waste and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School, and some houses, in Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. (AP Photo)
Smoke still rises from the smoldering house buried beneath the black slime as rescue workers and bulldozers search for bodies, 28 hours after it had slipped down the man-made mountain of coal waste and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School, and some houses, in Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. (AP Photo)
Rescue workers still toil in the black slime, 28 hours after it had slipped down the man-made mountain of coal waste and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School, and some houses, in Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. (AP Photo)
Rescue workers shovel the slurry, wet coal waste, away to a lorry, 28 hours after it had slipped down the man-made mountain of coal waste and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School, and some houses, in Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. (AP Photo)
Rescue workers toil in the huge pile of rubble, after the collapse of a slag-tip at Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. Many of the local children were killed when the rubble engulfed the village school. (AP Photo)
Rescue workers toil in a huge pile of rubble, after the collapse of a slag-tip at Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. Many of the local children were killed when the rubble engulfed the village school. (AP Photo)
Parents, relatives and friends watch rescue workers still toil in the black slime, hours after it had slipped down the man-made mountain of coal waste and engulfed the Pantglas Junior School, and some houses, in Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 22, 1966. (AP Photo)
Corteges move slowly through the streets of the village of Aberfan, Wales, on Oct. 27, 1966, en-route to the communal grave in the Bryntaf Cemetery. 116 children and 28 adults were engulfed and killed in the Pantglas Junior School, in Aberfan, when a slag-heap collapsed. (AP Photo)
Floral tributes are formed into a huge cross on the side of the deeply sloping mountainside Bryntaf Cemetery, at Aberfan, Wales, on Oct. 27, 1966, prior to the mass internment of the children killed in the landslide on the Pentglas Junior School on Oct. 21. (AP Photo)
The coffins of 82 of the 116 children and 28 adults, killed by a slag heap collapsing and covering the Pantglas Junior School on October 21, in the Welsh village of Aberfan, are placed into graves in the Bryntaf Cemetery, on Oct. 27, 1966, prior to their internment. (AP Photo)
Queen Elizabeth II, with her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, places a wreath on the communal grave of victims of the Aberfan, Wales, coal tip avalanche, when they visited the stricken village, Oct. 29, 1966. The Queen spent several hours touring the disaster area and talking with bereaved villagers and rescued children. (AP Photo/BIPPA/Brian Calvert/POOL)
Queen Elizabeth II receives a bouquet of flowers from three year old Karen Jones, granddaughter of local councilor Jim Williams, left, when she arrived in the stricken village of Aberfan, Wales, Oct. 29, 1966. The Queen, accompanied by her husband, Prince Philip, spent several hours touring the disaster area and meeting bereaved parents and rescued children. (AP Photo/BIPPA/Brian Calvert/POOL)
Wide-eyed Alison Lewis, 8, tells Queen Elizabeth II and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, how she was rescued when a giant coal tip caused an avalanche on to her school, Pantglas Infants and Junior School, on Oct. 21, 1966. Alison was pushed forward from the crowd, when the Queen and Prince Philip visited the grieving Welsh mining village of Aberfan, Oct. 29, 1966, to mourn with the bereaved and to give them comfort and sympathy. (AP Photo/BIPPA/Brian Calvert/POOL)
Photo curation by Kathryn Bubien
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