Polish community mark 75th anniversary of Katyn massacre

A special remembrance service was held today to mark the 75th anniversary of the Katyn massacre on Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

Members of the Polish community came together to remember the victims who died at the hands of the Soviet Union's Secret Police.

It's estimated that more than 20,000 Polish prisoners of war were ordered to be executed by Stalin in 1940.

For fifty years, the deaths were blamed on the Nazis but Russia admitted responsibility for the executions in 1990.

The massacre takes its name from the forest in modern day Russia, where in 1943 a mass grave containing bodies of those killed was discovered.

Organisers at the service today said the woodland in Cannock Chase is very similar to the Katyn forest.