Thousands honour Lockerbie victims

Tributes were paid at services across the UK and in the US on the anniversary of the atrocity, when Pan Am Flight 103 from Heathrow to New York exploded in the skies above the Scottish town in 1988.

All 259 people on board were killed and a further 11 died in Lockerbie where the wreckage fell to the ground.

Their names were read out at vigils arranged to coincide with the moment of the disaster, minutes after 7pm on Sunday.

In Lockerbie, hundreds of residents gathered at ceremonies at Dryfesdale and Tundergarth churches.

The Rev Sandy Stoddart told the congregation at Dryfesdale: "I have printed 270 names on the back of the order of service. This is a list of those who died. But it is not a list of the victims, because we can never list all those names.

"Nobody but God knows all the names on the list."

At Heathrow, former employees of the Pan Am airline joined relatives of some of the 33 British victims at a memorial at Heathrow Airport chapel, led by the Rev John Mosey, whose daughter Helga died in the disaster.

New York State's Syracuse University, which lost 35 students in the bombing, held a service and some 500 people were due to attend a remembrance services at Arlington National Cemetery outside Washington DC.

Of the passengers and crew killed in the Lockerbie disaster, 188 were Americans.