SILENCE descended on Hiroshima at 8.15am today as the city marked the day and the hour that the first atom bomb struck it 76 years ago, killing over 75,000 people immediately and the same number again over the next few weeks.

A socially distanced ceremony lacked the usual crowds for the second year running because of the coronavirus pandemic, but thousands participated an online rally organised by the 2021 World Conference Against Atomic Bombs. Another rally is planned for Monday, the 76th anniversary of the Nagasaki bombing. The two bombings by the United States remain the only occasions nuclear weapons have been used.

Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui called on world leaders to recognise the continued possession of nuclear weapons is a threat to humanity that should be taken as seriously as Covid.