People across Wales to remember Aberfan disaster on 60th anniversary

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Most of the coal tip slide hit Pantglas Junior School in South Wales on October 21 1966 killing 116 children and 28 adults.

Villagers had warned the National Coal Board (NCB) about the danger of the coal tip from mining debris from the Merthyr Vale Colliery piled aboveground where there were numerous underground springs but were ignored.

Children in Pantglas Junior School were just getting ready for lessons when 1.5 million cubic feet of liquefied slurry crashed into the school and a number of nearby houses.

About half the children from the junior school died in the tragedy, which happened on the last day before half-term.

Hundreds of miners rushed to help in the rescue attempt, alongside firefighters, police officers, ambulance personnel, and local residents.

Welsh labour movement historian Rob Griffiths said: “The people of Aberfan paid the ultimate price for a top-down bureaucratic model of capitalist nationalisation.

“In its drive to cut costs and compensate the former coal owners, the NCB piled up mountains of waste on the valley hillsides, defying common sense and all the principles of civil engineering with impunity.

“After a magnificent display of solidarity from workers and communities around the world, the Labour government then raided the Disaster Fund to pay for removal of the coal tips.

“Prime Minister Tony Blair’s administration added insult to injury, repaying the stolen money 30 years later but without adding a penny in interest.”

First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth paid tribute in the Senedd and said: “We honour the past with a shared determination that we must do everything we can to protect all our communities into the future.

“But we must also never forget the injustices visited on that community.

“The negligence of the National Coal Board letting many spoil tips build up, and then afterwards, when the fund to support the community was raided in a shameful act.”

South Wales National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general secretary Wayne Thomas told the Star that the disaster should never have happened because the community had warned of the dangers of the coal tip.

Mr Thomas also warned that the Westminster government’s coal tip remediation fund of £140 million for Wales was insufficient to deal with the historic legacy of coal tips across the country.

Wales / 22 October 2026 Aberfan: the terrible price of putting jobs before lives 22 October 2026 SO Davies’s tribunal testimony exposed the cruel dilemma facing Aberfan and the mining communities around it: accept the threat of the tips or risk losing precious colliery jobs. Six decades on, the struggle for justice remains central to the village’s legacy, says ROB GRIFFITHS

Wales / 21 October 2026 Grief and anger over Aberfan still haunt the Welsh Valleys 21 October 2026 Incompetence and indifference created the conditions for the disaster that took the lives of 116 children and 28 adults 60 years ago, writes LYNNE WALSH

Wales / 21 October 2026 Aberfan 60 years on: a tragedy caused by capitalism 21 October 2026 In the first of two articles ROB GRIFFITHS dissects the authorities’ wilful ignorance of fact that led to the tragedy