DURHAM came to a standstill yesterday at 11am as people stopped to remember the men and women who gave their lives in wartime.

About 200 people observed a two-minute silence in Durham City Market Place at 11am that was heralded by buglers playing from the balcony of the Town Hall.

Dignitaries gathered on the steps of the Town Hall, including Mayor John Lightley, city council leader Fraser Reynolds, the Dean of Durham, the Very Reverend Michael Sadgrove, and representatives of the Territorial Army and the Royal British Legion.

Shirley Annand, widow of the late Captain Richard Annand - the Durham Victoria Cross winner who died on Christmas Eve - also attended.

The Very Rev Sadgrove said: "This year, we have given thanks for the end of the Second World War and we continue to remember those who fell in Iraq.''

He asked people to remember people they had known and those who had no one to remember them.