Local peace campaigners gathered at Kingston Riverside recently to commemorate the anniversary of the destruction of Hiroshima by an atomic bomb at the end of the Second Word War.

Members of Kingston Peace Council/CND were joined by Mayor of Kingston Cllr Liz Green on the evening of August 6, the 79^th anniversary of the bomb that caused the deaths of 140,000 Japanese citizens.

Also remembered was the dropping of a second American atomic bomb three days later on the city of Nagasaki, killing a further 74,000 people.

In a short speech, Peace Council member Phil Cooper said the numbers killed as a result of the two attacks were equivalent to every man, woman and child currently living in the Borough of Kingston as well as, Hampton, Teddington and most of Twickenham.

And he reminded the crowd of supporters, which included members of the local Japanese community, the current international situation, especially the conflict in Ukraine, is making the threat of a nuclear war a very real threat to the world.

He quoted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres's recent warning that "Humanity is on a knife's edge; the risk of a nuclear weapon being used has reached heights not seen since the cold war".

Those present observed a minute's silence in memory of the victims of all wars and also strewed white flowers on the river.