Malcolm Rees was the first journalist from the Evening Post at the scene of the disaster.

The 64-year-old from Cilfrew, Neath, heard his phone buzzing the moment he came into the former Post office in Port Talbot that Friday at 8.30am.

No day is standard as a senior news reporter, but Malcolm still recalls this day was far more out of the ordinary than usual.

He went on to retire as a Post senior reporter for the east district in December 2004, but his memory of this event is as clear as a bell.

He said: "As soon as I got in, there was a phone call immediately to get in the car and go straight up to Aberfan.

"When I got there it was horrendous. You couldn’t get the car very close to it. It was just a hive of activity with hundreds of people everywhere.

"I coped with it by just getting on with my job. I did not have time to think about it too much.

"It was a very busy day and I did not get back home until late in the evening.

"It was harrowing talking to parents there.

"At that stage they did not know whether their children had survived.

"Although there was so much going on, I also remember there was a strange stillness about the place. It was quite eerie at times and that feeling went on all day."

"There was a pub nearby and I used the phone there to dictate my stories over to the newsroom.

"I remember all the national journalists turning up within hours — all the nationals had representatives based in South Wales at the time.

"It was the worst incident I have had to cover.

"At first no-one was too clear on how many had lost their lives.

"It was a case of frantically digging everybody out and the police were keeping people not involved away from that area as much as they could.

"We heard a few days later that police had difficulty in identifying some of the children who had died.

"They had to go around the homes in the village taking fingerprints off children’s toys and match them up with the fingerprints on the bodies.

"I ended up being the first Post reporter on the scene as being based in the Port Talbot office I was the nearest.

"I was given the next day off after covering the story.

"It is something I will never forget — and it is important that it isn’t forgotten."