Thousands gather in Omagh car-park to commemorate the bomb victims

Several thousand people gathered in a car-park in the centre of Omagh last night for a short candlelit vigil to commemorate the dead and injured from Saturday's bomb. They sang hymns, recited prayers for healing and listened as a succession of speakers, fighting back tears, read the names and ages of the people who died.

Those attending parked their cars outside the town centre, which remains cordoned off, and walked to the car-park near Drumragh bridge, a short distance from the bomb site. Most shops and businesses in the town, even those unaffected by the explosion, are still closed.

Local singer Dominic Kirwan led last night's attendance in renditions of The Lord is my Shepherd and Abide with me, and also called for a minute's silence, which was observed by everybody in the large crowd.

Local community workers recited the names of the bomb victims and led prayers, both of thanks for the courage of the emergency services and of hope that Omagh would recover from the tragedy in time.

One speaker prayed: "Dear God, please send your peace to our country and let this be the very last time that the people of Northern Ireland have to stand like this, mourning their dead in such tragic circumstances."

One man in the crowd, Mr Cuan Sharkey, said he had known every one of the Omagh people who died, "either personally or through their mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters or extended family".

The head chef in a local hotel, he said Omagh would never "pick up all the pieces from this". But he also believed local people would rally around the victims and around the businesses affected, "to show these people, whoever they are and whatever their motivation, that they will never succeed".

The vigil was attended by several representatives of Sinn Fein, including Mr Pat Doherty and Ms Lucilita Bhreathnach, but no other politicians were apparent. Prince Charles's entourage passed the car-park as people gathered for the event, following the royal visit to the county hospital.