
China today marked the 82nd anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

It has been estimated that more than 300,000 people were slaughtered by Japanese troops in the city of Nanjing, formerly known as Nanking, during the six-week bloodbath from December 13 in 1937.

One of the darkest chapters in the country's history, the carnage was part of the Second Sino-Japanese War and bore witness to a multitude of atrocities, including killing contests, mass rape, the bayoneting of children and babies as well as the looting of homes, according to Chinese historians.

Locals of Nanjing take part in a ceremony on the National Day of Remembrance to mourn the Nanjing Massacre victims today

More than 8,000 people, including students, representatives of all industries and survivors of the carnage, swarm the square

Survivor of the Nanjing Massacre Xia Shuqin (left) talks with a Japanese friend during the national memorial ceremony

The huge crowd gather on a plaza in front of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in the eastern province of Jiangsu today

More than 8,000 people gathered in the former Chinese capital this morning to mourn the dead on the sixth official National Day of Remembrance, which commemorates the killing spree during the second World War.

The solemn ceremony began at 10am on a plaza in front of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in the eastern province of Jiangsu, according to the country's state news agency Xinhua.

A team of 18 guards of honour placed eight wreaths in front of a memorial monument.

The participants, including students, representatives of all industries and survivors of the carnage, paid tribute to the victims by giving a minute of silence after a national anthem ceremony.

In front of the crowd in black, China's national flag flew at half-mast.

The Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking or Nanking Massacre, was an episode of mass killing and mass rape committed by Japanese troops against the residents of Nanking, known as Nanjing today, during the Second World War

China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. However, some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny that a massacre took place at all

A photographic print shows the Japanese troops in Nanking after the city's conquest in 1937. In 2014, China formally made the anniversary a National Day of Remembrance, effectively raising the historic and political significance of the massacre

In addition to the slaughtering of 300,000 people, women were raped in the thousands. There were 40 military brothels in the city alone where Japanese soldiers would rape women as young as 12 years old.

The memorial service was attended by Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee.

Addressing the crowd, Mr Huang said that 'no force could shake the position of our great motherland' and 'no force could stop the forward march of the Chinese people'.

The official urged the public to 'unify around the CPC led by Comrade Xi Jinping' and endeavour towards 'new glory of national development and a new chapter of national rejuvenation'.

The solemn ceremony began at 10am on a plaza in front of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in the province of Jiangsu

The participants, including students and survivors of the carnage, paid tribute to the victims by giving a minute of silence

In front of the crowd in black, China's national flag flew at half-mast as the nation held a solemn memorial ceremony today

The memorial service was attended by Huang Kunming, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China

China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history.

China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 massacre, also known as 'Rape of Nanjing', in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital.

In 2014, China formally made the anniversary a National Day of Remembrance, effectively raising the historic and political significance of the Nanjing Massacre.

Pupils are seen singing national anthem during a ceremony to mark China's sixth National Memorial Day for the massacre

Students are pictured placing flowers in front of a memorial to mark the 82nd anniversary of the six-week killing spree

Paramilitary policemen carry wreaths to a mourning service at the 1937 Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in Nanjing

China's President Xi has attended the ceremony twice: in its founding year of 2014 and on the 80th anniversary of the event in 2017. Xi called on China and Japan to set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now

A postwar Allied tribunal put the death toll in the eastern city of Nanjing at 142,000, but some conservative Japanese politicians and scholars deny that a massacre took place at all.

Ties between China and Japan, the world's second- and third-largest economies, have been plagued by a long-running territorial dispute over a cluster of East China Sea islets and suspicion in China about efforts by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to amend Japan's pacifist constitution.

China's President Xi has attended the National Day of Remembrance twice: once in its founding year of 2014 and once on the 80th anniversary of the massacre in 2017.

After mourning the victims in 2014, Xi called on China and Japan to set aside hatred and not allow the minority who led Japan to war to affect relations now.