Anniversary of great Portugal quake

01/11/2005 - 15:28:34
Church bells have tolled in unison across Lisbon as the Portuguese capital marked the 250th anniversary of an earthquake and tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people.

The archbishop of Lisbon, Jose Policarpo, asked the city’s churches to ring their bells at 9.30am, the time the quake struck on November 1, 1755, in memory of the victims.

At the same time, Policarpo celebrated Mass in the ruins of the 14th-century Carmo Convent in the city’s downtown district. The roofless monument is one of the few remnants of the disaster.

The death toll from one of the strongest quakes ever to hit western Europe is believed to have been at least 60,000 and may have reached 140,000.