During the morning of 22 October, a green Ford Zephyr nosed its way into the village. In the aftermath, a roadblock was set up to control access to the disaster, but more or less anyone in a uniform or an official-looking car could find a way through. One hundred and forty-four people were killed by the tip slide in Aberfan, 116 of them children, mostly between the ages of seven and 10. Then the wave reached Pantglas junior school and Pantglas county secondary school, burying the former, which was full of children answering the register. At first, sheep, hedges, cattle, a farmhouse with three people inside were smothered. People later compared the roar of the collapsing mine tip to a low-flying jet aircraft or thunder or a runaway train. O n the morning of 21 October 1966, a dark, glistening wave of coal waste burst out of the hillside above the Welsh village of Aberfan and poured down.
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