Holocaust Memorial Day was marked in King's Lynn today with a civic service at the town's Tower Gardens.

Members of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities all took part in the service led by Canon Christopher Ivory of St Margaret's Church.

A choir of 40 pupils from St Martha's RC School in Gaywood provided the music for the service while two children gave a reading to those gathered in the gardens.

West Norfolk Mayor Colin Sampson welcomed the 90 people who gathered for the noon service and laid a wreath at its conclusion. Council leader Nick Daubney read a selection of quotations on this year's theme of Speak Out Speak Up.

'I visited Belsen twice in the late 1970s, when my TA unit was on exercise in Germany, and was deeply moved by the atmosphere of the memorial. There really was no birdsong, or even birds, within the site,' said Mr Sampson

'Unfortunately, dreadful events, similar to what we know as the Holocaust, are happening all over the world even now. Many of them barely make the headlines any more. However, that only makes our Holocaust Memorial Day all the more important, especially with this year's theme of Speak Out, Speak Up.'

Representatives of the Soroptomists and King's Lynn Area Resettlement Support also gave a reading. The traditional Jewish mourners' prayer, the Kaddish, was also read in memory of the six million Jewish people who died in the Holocaust.

The International Prayer for Peace was read by Fr Peter Rollings of the Lynn Roman Catholic Church and candles of remembrance were lit. St Martha's RC School pupil Ryan Tallon, aged nine, was one of the many people who lit a candle of remembrance at the event.