AN annual vigil was held in Keighley to mark the anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

People gathered in Town Hall Square for the ceremony, which was led by Sylvia Boyes.

There was a silent tribute at 8.15am, the time that the bomb fell.

Mrs Boyes said: “It is now 74 years since that moment and many of us have lived our entire lives under the nuclear shadow.

“But the danger to our planet and its people is even greater now, as nuclear weapons proliferate. Possessor nations like the USA and Russia allow long-standing treaties limiting these obscene weapons to lapse and cowboy nuclear diplomacy is conducted over twitter.”

Town mayor, Councillor Peter Corkindale, spoke about his memories – as a schoolboy – of the afternoon that the Cuba/Turkey missile crisis came to a head.

And he read out the annual message of peace from the mayor of Hiroshima, who urged all nations to sign and ratify the treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

MP John Grogan couldn’t attend but he sent a message of peace, emphasising that he was backing the United Nations Treaty for Disarmament and working towards a world without nuclear weapons.

Participants also read testimony from survivors of the bomb and eyewitness accounts, and Hiroshima Child was sung acapella.