25th anniversary of ‘evil’ Lockerbie bombing marked

The evil that caused the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in the skies above Lockerbie "burst through like a postule on the skin", a commemoration in the Scottish town has been told.

Hundreds gathered at the cemetery outside the town to honour the 270 people killed in the December 21st, 1988 terrorist attack, one long-blamed on ex-Libyan dictator, Muammar Gadafy.

The Pan Am flight had left Heathrow little more than an hour before it exploded 25 years ago, killing everyone on board and 11 people on the ground.

Faced with such an atrocity, people can often seek “an instant and visceral response, fleetingly satisfying”, Episcopalian minister, Rev John MacLeod told those gathered at the Dryfesdale cemetery.

However, people must push for “justice, the rule of law, tempered by mercy”, he said, urging those present to pray for “those souls who set out to destroy” that night.

Scotland's Lord Advocate General, Jim Wallace, who is from the nearby town of Annan, said Lockerbie and Scotland should always remember "for the sake of those who lives were changed forever".

US Government representative, Craig Lyons said the resolve to fight terrorist organisations, or those who would perpetrate terrorism on their own was undiminished.

Speaking before he laid a wreath, Scotland’s first minister Alex Salmond said Scotland was once more remembering “the harrowing events of that terrible night.

“It is important that we remember that the pain and suffering of the families and friends of those who died has endured since that winter night in 1988.”

Meanwhile, memorial events in Westminster Abbey in London, in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia and at Syracuse University - which lost 35 students.

Scotland’s justice secretary Kenny MacAskill, who released the one man convicted of the bombing, Abdulhasset al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds, will attend an evening service in Lockerbie tonight.

British prime minister David Cameron said the UK’s admiration for tho fortitude and resilience shown by the bereaved, and those injured on that night “is unconditional”.

They had displayed a determination “never to give up”, he said: “You have shown that terrorist acts cannot crush the human spirit. That is why terrorism will never prevail.

“Even in the darkest moments of grief, it is possible to glimpse the flickering flame of hope,” said Mr Cameron, who continues to face pressure to do more to see those responsible brought to justice.