IN one terrible instant, 40 years ago, 116 children died.

IN one terrible instant, 40 years ago, 116 children died. A mountain of coal waste collapsed on a junior school killing 144 people in all, and the small Welsh mining town of Aberfan became forever known as the town without children.

Just 25 youngsters lived through the horror of that day, physically and mentally scarred by the nightmare that robbed them of their childhood.

American photographer Chuck Rapoport arrived in Aberfan nine days after the disaster and spent two months capturing the aftermath.

Now, to coincide with the 40th anniversary, he has returned to meet the survivors and photograph them once more for a poignant ITV1 documentary - Aberfan: Children Of The Valley.

A memorial garden now stands on the site, echoing the lay-out of the school. There are small stone walls where the classrooms once were. The last child to be rescued alive was found, at 11am on October 21, 1966, less than two hours after the landslide.

The tragedy had a profound effect on the celebrated 69-year-old New York photographer. "The one place I was nervous about treading was the cemetery," Rapoport recalls of his days there 40 years ago. "It was a very graphic symbol of the death of these children. One woman, Margaret Powell, visited her daughter's grave twice a day.

"She told me it was her second home and she couldn't stay away. When she fixed the flowers over the grave, it was like she was brushing her daughter's hair."

Today, the mayor of Aberfan is himself one of those surviving children. Jeff Edwards was saved when his white blond hair was spotted through the debris.

"I was eight when it happened. You can't imagine such a cataclysmic event occurring to such young people," he says.

"Lots of my friends died. My best friend Robert was the doctor's son. He died.

"The material came down from the mountain and actually smashed the windows. It piled over one side and I had a little pocket of air that I could breathe in. A lot of the children died because they couldn't breathe.

"Big heavy beams and desks fell on top of me. There was a little girl's head on my shoulder - she had died so I couldn't move. I was frightened because that was the first dead person I had ever seen. I had nightmares for a long time after. Sometimes, I can't cope with the flashbacks of being trapped in that circle of air. The girl on my shoulder comes back continuously.

"You go into such deep depression, you are unable to function, unable to shave, unable to look in the mirror. The only way I can get over that is to stay in bed for two or three days until the depression passes.

"The horrific scenes of carnage that I saw... changed me overnight and I was no longer a child. My childhood was taken away from me."

PHILIP Thomas, now a gardener, was pulled from the rubble by some of the two-and-a-half-thousand volunteers who rushed to the scene to dig with their bare hands.

In a class of 37 children, he was one of just two survivors. This is the first time he has spoken publicly about the horrors of that day. "You could hear a rumbling noise, a hell of a noise, you couldn't see anything. I don't know how long I was buried for. It was some time. I could hear voices, I was shouting for me Mam. I could hear someone saying, 'There's someone here!' and digging me out. A big piece of wall was lying across me.

"They pulled me out and the nurses were washing me down. Wherever they washed me, I bled. The doctors said stop washing because the wounds were opening up.

"I had long trousers when I went to school but when I got to hospital only the top half was left."

Philip, who is due to become a grandfather for the first time on the anniversary of the disaster, spent weeks in hospital.

"I lost three fingers on my right hand, I lost my spleen, I had a fractured pelvis and numerous scars from my knees to my head," he says. "My ear was off, they sewed that back on. The hardest part was accepting I lost my fingers. They were mashed."

With quiet understatement, he adds: "I took a bit of a battering." Gaynor Madgwick was also seriously injured.

Her brother Carl and older sister Marilyn died. Gaynor wrote an account of the day, saying: "It was all like a dream. Bodies lay crushed and buried. I could see a child's hand through a gap in the wall - I didn't know if it was a boy or a girl. I squeezed the hand and pinched it. I didn't know if it was alive, but it was dead."

Now 48, she says: "At the time I would have given my own life if God promised to bring them back alive. I would have done it.

"I felt so strongly that if I died and Carl and Marilyn could be alive, perhaps my parents wouldn't be so sad then because they'd have two ... specially Carl, as he was the only boy. My dad still suffers."

Her father Cliff Minett, now long retired, says: "It took the heart out of me. We should have had two more ... I often think of it. We named our house Carlyn after them. I'll be buried with them two, Carl and Marilyn."

Today, Chuck Rapoport recalls photographing John Collins, who had lost his wife Gwyneth and sons Raymond and Peter. "In Aberfan then, there was a hierarchy of pain - whose child was in hospital, whose child was dead, who had two children dead ... and John was the champion of pain.

"Even his house was gone in the slurry. There wasn't even a photograph left, no clothes, nothing."

Former Aberfan teacher Hugh Watkins recalls: "On the day of the funerals, John asked if I could walk with him because he had no one left. The only thing I could give him was Raymond's exercise book."

THE world watched with disbelief as the disaster unfolded on TV news bulletins and tens of thousands of donations and cards flooded into the town.

Chuck says the men of Aberfan found solace most evenings in the local pub.

"The men came to the pub as they normally did to drink but when the time came to go home, they couldn't because home was a place that was a reminder of all that they had lost, all that was missing," he says.

Ronnie Davis was the first boy Chuck photographed. He lost his brother and his home was destroyed. "I used to ask, why was I saved and not him?" he says. "I do try to make something of myself by working, that's the only way. I still ask why."

Teacher Hugh lost several pupils in his senior classroom, despite it being furthest from the avalanche.

"There were four of my boys sitting on the junior school wall," he recalls. "Instead of running towards the other end of the village away from the slurry, they ran back towards our school and were caught in the deluge and killed.

"I thought a plane had come down low into the mist and had crashed into the mountainside. I looked up and saw this huge mass of slurry, boulders, trees, welling down as if the mountain had opened up and exploded.

"There was a deathly silence then. All you could hear was a swish down the valley. The aftermath was parents waiting all day long with the hope that somewhere under that slurry was their son or daughter, but to no avail."

Milkman's son David Davies, now a retired lawyer, was at first dug out of the school wreckage and declared dead. Now Chuck says: "His dad was digging and digging, they would pass bodies from man to man. They passed David and said, 'This one's dead too.' But his dad recognised him even though he was covered with mud and he broke out of line to carry him down to the nurse.

"The nurse ushered him towards the row of bodies to put his boy down there but they noticed he was alive when he moved his foot."

David says: "Obviously the knowledge that I was brought out dead is going to have an effect for better or for worse on one's life. Thankfully in my case, it has had a positive effect."

Chuck's favourite picture is the one he took of a gang of Aberfan children, a picture filled with hope.

"I wanted a portrait of the 25 kids who had survived. I got them to line up and they were just staring at me.

"I took one formal portrait but I knew it wasn't the right one. Then the children started prodding each other and putting their fingers up and moving around.

"I kept clicking away and then I got it... a new sense of life."

Aberfan: Children Of The Valley, ITV1, Monday, October 16 at 11pm


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