Hiroshima remembered as lanterns light up the night

Residents in the Japanese city of Hiroshima are commemorating the 70th anniversary of the first atomic bomb being dropped by a US aircraft.

People across the country observed a minute's silence at the exact time an American aircraft dropped the bomb in 1945.

As dusk fell in Hiroshima, the ceremonies culminated with the release of thousands of colourful paper lanterns on the Motoyasu river. (BBC News)