PEACE campaigners gathered beside the River Kent on Sunday night to commemorate the dropping of atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

On the 72nd anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima they shared survivors' accounts of the devastation and observed a minute's silence to remember all who have died in wars before floating lanterns bearing the message 'No More Hiroshimas' and the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Storth resident Patricia Gilligan, of Sandside, explained that since 1947 the people of Hiroshima have been floating lanterns on the Motoyasu River in memory of the tens of thousands who died in the devastating nuclear attack in 1945.

Her husband Philip Gilligan said: "In 1945, the nuclear bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused utter devastation. By 1950, over 340,000 people had died as a result and generations had been poisoned by radiation. "The explosion's effects killed indiscriminately by vaporising human tissue. Many survivors of the initial blast burned to death, while cancers caused by the radiation affected countless others, causing years of misery to both adults and children.

"That is the effect of a nuclear weapon. Seventy-two years later, in 2017, Britain continues to threaten all our futures with nuclear weapons of mass destruction.

"Sixteen thousand nuclear weapons threaten the survival of the world. Two hundred and twenty five nuclear warheads are based in Britain as part of the Trident system. Each of these bombs has eight times the killing power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

"As we commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the bombings, we need to remember exactly what nuclear weapons really do, and we need to work relentlessly to make sure that no-one else suffers such pain and devastation. We need to scrap Trident and begin to finally rid the whole world of nuclear weapons."