Preston temple vigil held for India plane crash victims
Prayers were held at a Hindu temple in Lancashire for those who lost their lives in the Air India crash in Ahmedabad.The London Gatwick-bound flight crashed soon after take-off from the city's airport in the western state of Gujarat at about 09:00 BST on Thursday, killing 242 people on board. One person - a British man - survived.Crowds gathered at the Gujarat Hindu Society Temple in Preston on Friday to pray for those who had died and their loved ones.Temple president Ishwer Tailor said he hoped the vigil would give people some "consolation".
Mr Tailor said Preston has a large Gujarati community and admitted he wanted to do something sooner than the weekend "with people being in shock"."It is a catastrophe not just for people who have passed away but also for India," he said."We have had several people coming up to us and telling stories of some of their friends and relatives who have perished in this terrible accident and the stories keep coming."
He said the temple doors would remain open for all communities."Whole families have been destroyed. All we can do in this moment in time is pray and make sure we remember them in our prayers," he said.
There were 53 Britons on board the flight, along with 169 Indian nationals, seven Portuguese nationals and one Canadian.One couple who died in the crash - 72-year-old Adam Taju and his wife Hasina, 70 - were described as the "foundation of our family" by their granddaughters, from Blackburn, Lancashire.
Additional reporting by Anna Jameson and Nishma Hindocha
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