York Minster holding Holocaust memorial service

Hundreds of candles will be lit at York Minster later to mark international Holocaust Memorial Day.

The event will begin with a Choral Evensong service at 17:30 GMT, organisers said.

Six hundred candles - arranged in the shape of the Star of David - will be lit to mark the six million Jews killed during World War Two.

The event will also remember victims of recent genocides and those murdered by the Nazis .

Members of different faiths will be attending, organisers said.

A week-long programme of events, centred around this year's theme 'Ordinary People', is taking place across the city.

The Reverend Canon Maggie McLean, from York Minster, said people are encouraged to reflect on the importance of ordinary people who "find courage and humanity not to dehumanise others" and offer "small acts of kindness".

Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year. The date marks the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp - the largest Nazi death camp - in 1945.

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