A cortege carrying the coffins of German schoolchildren killed in the Germanwings plane crash has arrived in their home town of Haltern.
Residents holding white roses lined the route as the convoy of white hearses passed the children’s school.
Earlier, relatives of 44 of the 150 victims viewed their coffins inside a hangar at Duesseldorf airport.
The victims’ remains are the first to be repatriated following delays over errors on the death certificates.
Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz is believed to have deliberately crashed the Airbus A320 into the French Alps in March.
Candles lit
Eighteen of the victims – 16 schoolchildren and two teachers – were from the Joseph-Koenig-Gymnasium school in the north-western German town of Haltern and had been returning from an exchange trip in Barcelona when the plane crashed.
White hearses carried the children’s remains from Duesseldorf airport while the coffins of the two teachers were in black hearses.
White candles were lit in the school grounds, where 18 trees – one for each victim – were recently planted as a memorial.
Flags on the town hall in Haltern were at half-mast.
Haltern Mayor Bodo Klimpel said there was a sense of relief in the town now that the children’s remains had been repatriated.
“After so many weeks of waiting, especially for the relatives, we are of course relieved that we have them back,” he said.
“It was very moving when we left the motorway and entered town, how people showed their sympathy by lining the streets, praying and crying.”
Ulrich Wessel, the school’s headmaster, said it had been an important event.
“From Friday, the burials will take place over the course of two weeks and this will be a further horrible moment, having to say goodbye to the children. So today was brutal but, at the same time, important.”
The remains of the rest of the victims will be repatriated over the coming weeks. The passengers were from 18 countries, including Australia, Argentina and Japan, but most of those on board were either Spanish or German.
Source: BBC