Aberfan Disaster: School Buried by Coal Tip

In 1966, a coal waste pile crushed a school in Wales, killing 116 children

and 28 adults. Warnings about the instability of the tip had been ignored for years by local

authorities and mining officials. On the morning of October 21, after days of heavy

rain, the mountain of slurry collapsed and slid downhill. It engulfed Pantglas

Junior School in Aberfan just as lessons were beginning. Rescue efforts were immediate but heartbreaking.

Most of the children were found where they had been sitting. A later inquiry found the disaster

was entirely preventable. No one was ever jailed. Aberfan became a symbol of institutional

negligence and a permanent scar on a community that lost a generation in minutes.