{"id":661286,"date":"2026-10-21T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/661286\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T10:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T10:00:10","slug":"aberfan-marks-60-years-since-coal-tip-collapsed-on-school-and-homes-killing-116-children-and-28-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/661286\/","title":{"rendered":"Aberfan marks 60 years since coal tip collapsed on school and homes, killing 116 children and 28 adults"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What happened in Aberfan on 21 October 1966?published at 08:34 BST<\/p>\n<p>08:34 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">It was the last day before half term, and pupils had just sat down to lessons at Pantglas Junior School in Aberfan. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Just after 09:00, a colliery spoil tip above the small mining community collapsed. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">About 150,000 tonnes of slurry slid down the mountain and towards the village, engulfing the school and nearby houses. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The disaster claimed the lives of 144 people, including 116 children. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At the time, Aberfan, in Merthyr Tydfil county, was a village of a few thousand people, just like countless others dotted across the south Wales coalfield. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But its name is now ingrained on the national consciousness, and every year on 21 October, the nation pauses to remember those that were lost. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Stay with us as we bring you live coverage throughout the day as people gather in Aberfan to pay their respects.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Memorial garden\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0361b8d0-dd8c-43d1-94ac-0485862c4ccd.png.webp\"  width=\"921\" height=\"610\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What happened in Aberfan on 21 October 1966?published at 08:34 BST 08:34 BST It was the last day&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-661286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}