Hiroshima, 19 May 2023 (dpa/MIA) – Representatives of the seven major democratic industrial nations (G7) have commemorated those killed by the atomic bomb dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima at the end of World War II.

The heads of state and government visited the memorial to the victims of the bomb dropped by the US Air Force on August 6, 1945, laying floral wreaths presented to them by Japanese schoolchildren at a cenotaph in the city's Peace Memorial Park.

The bomb devastated the city, killing an estimated 70,000 people immediately and a further 70,000 to 80,000 over the following months.

A second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later. The bombs were the first use of a nuclear weapon, and nuclear weapons have not been used since.