Funerals: "This Will Never Be Forgotten", read a sign at a candlelit shrine on the main square as the Spanish town worst hit by the Madrid train bombings mourned its 40 dead on Saturday.
More than 1,000 mourners from the commuter town of Alcala de Henares attended a memorial service at a makeshift chapel in a sports hall for two victims of the blasts that ripped through packed commuter trains on Thursday.
"We have buried a son, 23 years old, a son full of future," said a father dressed in black, his arm around his wife, at the first public funeral. "We are all overwhelmed."
Hundreds of red-eyed mourners stood outside the municipal morgue as the bodies of several victims lay waiting for burial or cremation.
"We are all devastated. We have all been crying. One does not have to be a family member to feel grief," said Juana Torres.
In the historic centre of the town, the birthplace of Spain's best-loved author, Miguel de Cervantes, flags flew at half-mast and scores of red candles had been placed beside the entrance to the town hall.
"I am speechless. It's a mixture of impotence and fear, because now you walk the street with fear hoping it is not your turn next. Everybody here used that train. I had travelled on it lots of times," said Maria Jose, standing before the memorial.
Alcala de Henares was the starting point for three of the trains torn apart by Thursday's blasts, and the fourth travelled through it.
White-coated psychiatrists on hand at the memorial service to attend to relatives of the victims said the attack would leave scars on the community for some time. "Tiredness and shock collide and the sensation is as if they are living in a film which makes no sense," said Mr Juan Gonzalez, head of a team of psychiatrists." - (Reuters)