King and Prince William arrive to pay emotional tribute to Aberfan disaster victims 60 years on

King and Prince William arrive to pay emotional tribute to Aberfan disaster victims 60 years on The King, Queen and Prince William have made an emotional visit to Aberfan today to remember the 116 children and 28 adults killed in a disaster there exactly 60 years ago The King, Queen and Prince William are paying an emotional tribute to the victims of the Aberfan disaster today - 60 years on from the tragedy. The royals have joined survivors, bereaved families and politicians to remember the 116 children and 28 adults killed in the Welsh village on October 21, 1966, following a tearful minute's silence earlier this morning, where families consoled each other. An entire generation was almost wiped out when 150,000 tonnes of coal waste slid down a hillside before engulfing Pantglas Junior School the day before the half-term holidays. The disaster unfolded, following days of heavy rain, when excavated mining debris from the Merthyr Vale Colliery was dislodged and came thundering down the hillside. The decision by Charles’ mother, the late Queen, not to visit the village in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy and the criticism it drew is often regarded as one of the biggest regrets of her 70-year reign. Today the royals arrived in the village before heading to a memorial garden on the site of Pantglas Junior School, where the King and William laid wreaths and Camilla a posy of flowers. After paying their respects, the royals will meet retired members of the emergency services who helped in the hours and days after the disaster as they desperately tried to find survivors. They will then spend time with bereaved parents, siblings of those who died and survivors, including Jeff Edwards. Mr Edwards, now 68, was eight when he was rescued after seeing one of his classmates die while slumped on his shoulder. He recently told the Mirror: "The effect on you of seeing the scenes that you’d seen as a young child, particularly the girl on my shoulder, would give me constant nightmares. Any noise, particularly thunder, would make me extremely frightened." Later this afternoon, William will visit Ynysowen Community Primary School where he will unveil the Aberfan Memorial Tree, a new sculpture created to commemorate the anniversary. The tragedy, exactly 60 years ago, came as children began their first lesson of the day at Pantglas Junior School. At 9.15 am, disaster struck when a giant tip of rock and shale from the nearby colliery in the hills above the village collapsed following heavy rain. It sent a wall of slurry down the hill, flattening everything in its path, including the school, homes and a farm. A desperate rescue effort got underway, with people working day and night to try to dig survivors from the rubble. The day after the tragedy, both the then Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Prince Philip visited the village - but the late Queen stayed away, with her and her then private secretary Lord Chateris believing her presence would have hampered the rescue efforts. She didn’t visit until eight days later after attracting criticism, and it is said she regarded the delay as one of the biggest mistakes of her reign. When she did visit, she comforted members of the community who had just attended a mass funeral, where many remarked that the monarch became unusually emotional and shaken by grief. The whole episode was dramatised in the hit Netflix show, The Crown. After the tragedy, Elizabeth II went on to visit the village three more times over the course of her reign and kept a promise to open a new school there when it was built in 2012. On Monday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham visited Aberfan, where he spoke with survivors and bereaved families and laid a wreath in memory of those who died. First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth, who also attended today’s remembrance event, described Aberfan as “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history”. “The events of 21st October 1966 devastated the community of Aberfan. It robbed a generation of its children of their futures in a matter of moments,” he said ahead of the anniversary. Hearing stories of that day is an early memory that left a deep and lasting effect on me. “It brought home to me the horror of that day for all those who were there, and who lived to bear witness to what happened. The story of Aberfan will never be forgotten. It is a story of the most terrible loss and grief. But also a story of the resilience of a community over six decades.”