23 pictures that show the devastation caused 60 years ago by the Aberfan Disaster

On the morning of 21 October 1966, nothing had appeared out of the ordinary in the mining village of Aberfan in Wales.

By midday, it had turned into one of the darkest days in Welsh history, with 144 people killed after an avalanche of coal slurry slid down the nearby mountain - with 116 children among the dead.

Complaints had been made to the National Coal Board in previous years about the dangers of the slag heap being positioned above Pantglas Junior School - yet no action was taken and the tip continued to build.

At 9am, a coal worker spotted the tip had begun sinking and attempted to warn his bosses – yet the order stop adding to the coal heap had been given too late, with 240 pupils already making their way into their classrooms.

Minutes later, 150,000 tonnes of slurry would slide down the mountain and crash into the school, killing 109 pupils, and five teachers. Some staff died protecting the children, with deputy headmaster Dai Beynon using a blackboard to shield himself and five of his pupils - he and all 34 children in his class were killed.

Several houses along Moy Road were also destroyed, with another seven children and 23 adults killed as a result of the avalanche.

The tragedy has led to a number of royal visits, documentaries and memorials - yet after the news headlines moved on, it has remained woven into Aberfan’s daily life, with an entire generation lost under the rubble.

On its 60th anniversary, residents have continued to suffer with medical issues or post-traumatic stress disorders - with these images depicting the devastation wrought by the disaster.

1. The Aberfan Coillery spoil tramway in 1964, two years before the disaster. Complaints and concerns had been raised to Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council, who spoke to the National Coal Board on the topic of ‘Danger from the Coal Slurry being tipped at the rear of the Pantglas Schools’.

2. The scene at Aberfan, Glamorgan, after a man-made mountain of pit waste slid down onto Pantglas School, destroying it and killing 116 children and 28 adults.

3. The moving mountain of coal sludge after the disaster at Aberfan, showing the coal tip avalanche going down the valley.

4. Rescue workers form a chain to move debris in desperate efforts to reach the children trapped in the Pantglas Junior School

5. Working almost shoulder to shoulder, rescuers dig feverishly in the mud covering the primary school

6. An earth-moving machine bores into the barrier many yards deep, which is blocking a street in Aberfan after the coal slurry descended upon the village

7. Still toiling at daybreak and after many hours, rescue workers dig in the wreckage of the school engulfed by a sliding mountain of slag

8. With shovels or bare hands, rescue workers tear into the mud and rubble burying the ruins of one of a row of seven houses which were engulfed by the debris

9. With picks & shovels & a mechanical shovel, an army of policemen & volunteers dig away under floodlights to-night (Friday) as rescue operations continued at Pantglas Junior School

10. Rescue workers dig in the wreckage of the school engulfed in coal slurry, hoping to find the remaining survivors

11. Stretchers are kept in readiness in the hope that further bodies will be unearthed as excavation continues on a row of seven houses that have disappeared in the black avalanche

12. Grief-stricken rescue workers at the scene as bodies of children continue to be discovered under the rubble

13. Rescue workers stand on a mound of rubble amid smoke at night in the aftermath of the Aberfan Disaster

14. A child's toy on a heap of clothing that has been pulled from the rubble by rescue workers

15. The aftermath moving mountain of coal sludge seen sprawling down the mountain towards the village

16. Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh follow the pointing finger of local resident Councillor Jim Williams, who lost seven members of his family in the Aberfan disaster. The Queen waited eight days before visiting the scene – the delay was said to have been one of the greatest regrets of her reign.

17. The remainder of the school building visible as soldiers and miners at work amid the wreckage in the destroyed classrooms.

18. Coffins arriving at the cemetery during the mass funeral of 82 victims - 81 of them children

19. Rows of headstones in Aberfan cemetery mark the final resting places of the dead in the disaster

20. King Charles, then Prince of Wales, meeting rescue worker Dennis Osborn at the Aberfan Memorial Garden to mark the 50th anniversary of the disaster in 2016