Thousands of people in and on Friday celebrated Anzac Day to commemorate military service members who died in war.
Anzac stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.
Originally, Anzac Day used to mark the two countries’ unsuccessful campaign to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey in 1915 during . About 130,000 lives were lost.
In recent times, the day is used to honor all troops from Australia and New Zealand who have served during war or conflict.
Services held in major cities
In Sydney, about 7,500 people attended a dawn service before the annual march of military veterans, public broadcaster ABC reported. Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide and Hobart also held services.
“It is now a century and a decade since the first Anzacs climbed into their boats and rowed into history. The years come and go, and still we come together to honor them and all who have followed,” Australian Prime Minister said in a statement.
In New Zealand, a large service was held in Wellington.
“Nothing in my life has been quite as humbling and moving as walking in the footsteps of the ANZACs,” said New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on X.
He was in Turkey for Anzac Day and visited the battlefields and cemeteries where about 2,800 New Zealand soldiers were killed.
Britain’s also paid tribute to those who had perished during the campaign.
Hecklers disrupt service in Melbourne, Perth
In Melbourne, Mark Brown, a local Indigenous man, started the service with a ceremony in which Indigenous Australians welcome people to their land. Hecklers disrupted by saying, “This is our country” and “we don’t have to be welcomed,” and heckled any mention of soldiers.
“We’re commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology and so it was completely disrespectful, and it’s not something that is welcome at Anzac Day commemorations ever,” Veteran Affairs Minister Matt Keogh told ABC News.
He said the heckling was by a “known neo-Nazi.”
Police said they directed a 26-year-old man to leave the service, and he was questioned later.
A similar heckling incident occurred in Perth.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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