Streets of Warsaw, photo: A.SkieterskaSirens sounded and bells rang across Poland at 08.56 CET, the time, seven days ago, when the Tupolev TU- 154 crashed, one kilometre from Smolensk air case in western Russia, killing all 96 on board, including President Lech Kaczynski.
The siren begins a day when up to 500,000 people will be in and around plac Pilsudskiego in the heart of the capital for a special funeral mass and ceremony in memory of the dead.
Two minutes silence will be observed in the capital at noon.
The mass will be attended by members of the victim’s families, state dignitaries and mourners from Warsaw and beyond. Pictures of the 96 dead will be displayed in the square and proceedings will begin with renditions of of Krzysztof Penderecki's Credo and Henryk Gorecki's Amen.
The crowds will then be addressed by acting president Bronislaw Komorowski, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and former prime minister and Lech’s twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
At 18.00 CET Archbishop Kazimierz Nycz, Metropolitan of Warsaw, will say mass at St. John the Baptist’s church, where the coffins of President Lech Kaczynski and First Lady Maria will be guarded by an overnight vigil.
The coffins will then be moved to Krakow on Sunday for the state funeral to be attended by heads of state from the world over, including presidents of the US, France, Germany, central and eastern Europe, heads of NATO and EU. (pg)