Germany Holds Memorial For Plane Victims

A state memorial service has been held in the German city of Cologne for the 150 people who died in last month's Germanwings plane crash.

Around 1,400 people attended the service in Cologne's cathedral, including 500 relatives of the passengers.

The steps to the altar were covered with 150 lighted candles, one for each person who died - including co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who investigators believe deliberately crashed the plane.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was present alongside foreign ministers from Spain and France who this week joined their German counterpart in laying a wreath at the airport in Barcelona from where the flight took off.

The service was led by the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki and the president of the Protestant Church of Westphalia, Annette Kurschus.

A big screen offered members of the public in Cologne the chance to watch the event, which was broadcast around the world.

Matthias Kopp, spokesman for the German Bishops' Conference, said: "It is important that we are offering a space for grief. With the Dome in Cologne we have a place, where the mourners and relatives can pray, cry and in which the right words can be found.

"I think that is the biggest challenge.

"The second part is that we do not make an event out of it. It is a memorial service, in which we should put the focus on mourning and not on everything that happens around it."

Meanwhile, at the crash site in France, recovery teams continue to collect debris where 80% of the wreckage has now been cleared.

The aircraft is believed to have been deliberately flown into the French Alps by co-pilot Lubitz after he locked the plane's captain out of the cockpit.

Investigators are still trying to establish why he crashed the plane, which was en route to Dusseldorf.

Lubitz had hidden a sick note saying he was unfit to work from his employers and researched suicide methods in the days leading up to the crash.