Hundreds of thousands in Warsaw for President Lech Kaczynski's memorial service

A grieving Poland paid its respects to its dead president and the 95 other victims of the Smolensk air disaster with an emotional service of remembrance in central Warsaw.
By Matthew Day in Warsaw
17 Apr 2010

In bright spring sunshine an estimated 100,000 Poles bowed their heads as the names of the 96 who died on April 10 were read out.

A few minutes earlier at 12 o'clock the city had stood silent for two minutes as air-raid and police sirens wailed across the city.

In the morning the same sirens had signalled the exact time, 8.56am, when the aircraft carrying President Lech Kaczynski had crashed as it approached Smolensk airport in western Russia.

Along with the president and Maria, his wife, the crash killed the heads of the Polish armed services, the governor of the national bank, two ministers and a litany of household names in Poland. the rest