UK: SCOTLAND: DUNBLANE: MEMORIAL SERVICE

Описание: (9 Oct 1996) English/Nat

Prince Charles was among mourners who attended a memorial service Wednesday to remember the 16 children and their teacher shot dead by a lone gunman in the Scottish city of Dunblane earlier this year.

The city came to a standstill Wednesday as around 600 mourners attended the service at the city's cathedral.

Dunblane -- a city and community still shattered by the tragic killings of 16 children and their teacher on March 13 this year.

Around 600 mourners filed into the city's cathedral for a memorial service to remember the young victims Wednesday, among them Prince Charles.

Lone gunman Thomas Hamilton brutally changed the fate of this city earlier this year when he walked into a school and opened fire on its children and teachers.

Families, teachers, friends and some of the paramedics who were first on the scene attended the service.

It was led by the priest who conducted the funerals of those who died.

The Very Reverend Professor James Whyte, who conducted a memorial service after the Lockerbie air disaster, gave the sermon.

He had this message:

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Darkness fell on many families and indeed on this entire community on the morning of 13th of March. Light was turned into darkness. And yet in a memorial service, even after six months, and six months is a short time in the history of grief, darkness cannot be allowed the last word."
SUPER CAPTION: Very Reverend Professor James Whyte, Former Moderator of Church of Scotland

One by one, families and friends walked up to the altar and lit a candle for the child they had lost.

A larger candle was lit for their teacher, Gwenne Mayor, who was also killed in the attack.

Reverend Whyte told the congregation that many of them would find the inner strength to move forward, eventually putting Dunblane behind them.

But, he said, the attack would never be forgotten.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Those who lost a dear one, clearly have a journey to make, through their grief. The survivors who lost their innocence on that dreadful morning, whose lives are scarred, they also have a journey to make. And all of us who have shared the horror must make our journey out of that horror into a safer and more civilised society."
SUPER CAPTION: Very Reverend Professor James Whyte, Former Moderator of Church of Scotland

UPSOUND: Each of these candles represents a unique human life. The one big candle and the sixteen little ones.

Hamilton, a loner and gun enthusiast, walked into the school on March 13, armed with four handguns, and opened fire on a class of 4- and 5-year-olds before killing himself.

The shooting started a campaign to outlaw handguns in Britain.

The memorial service was planned for Wednesday on the assumption that a report into the massacre would be published by now.

But in response to concerns about the report coming out in the middle of the party conference season, it will not be handed to the Government until Monday.

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