A United Nations treaty banning nuclear weapons has been welcomed by survivors of the deadly atom bomb attacks on Japan which ended the Second World War.

Setsuko Thurlow, who survived the Hiroshima blast, was a 13-year-old schoolgirl when she was near to the hypocentre of the explosion on August 6, 1945.

“I have been waiting for this day for seven decades and I am overjoyed that it has finally arrived,” she told the Japan Times. “This is the beginning of the end of nuclear weapons.”

Recounting what happened in the aftermath to survivors, she said: “Their hair was standing on end — I don’t know why — and their eyes were swollen shut from the burns. Some peoples’ eyeballs were hanging out of the sockets. Some were holding their own eyes in their hands. Nobody was running. Nobody was yelling. It was totally silent, totally still. All you could hear were the whispers for ‘water, water.’

“How do you describe a hell on Earth?”

Toshiki Fujimori, assistant secretary-general of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations also hailed the adoption of the treaty.

“I never would imagine this treaty was going to be concluded," he said. “I think it is the collective effort of the humanity of all the people that came together here at the United Nations.”

The United Nation’s first-ever adoption of the nuclear weapons ban was agreed by a total of 122 countries, with only the Netherlands opposed and Singapore abstaining.

Dutch foreign affairs minister Bert Koenders said the Netherlands supported the ban on nuclear weapons but was concerned over issues with the resolution itself. Particularly, how checks and controls would be adhered to.

Costa Rican Ambassador Elayne Whyte Gomez, president of the UN conference on prohibiting nuclear weapons was jubilant. “We all feel very emotional today. We feel that we are responding to the hopes and to the dreams of present and future generations — that we undertake our responsibility as a generation to do whatever is in our hands to achieve and to move the world toward the dream of a world free of nuclear weapons.”

In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped Show all 13 1 /13 In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped The aftermath of the atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, by the Americans at the end of World War II. The occupants of the burned-out bus were all killed. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped 6th August 1945: An aerial view of the atomic bomb damage at Hiroshima. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped Hiroshima after the atom bomb explosion. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped This picture dated August 1945 in the Mariana Islands shows the US crew of the B-29 'Enola Gay' plane, including pilot Paul W. TIbbets (C), which dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on 06 August 1945. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped Colonel Paul Tibbets Jr, the pilot of the B-29 bomber 'Enola Gay', which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima waves from the cockpit before takeoff. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped A bombed out landscape in Hiroshima, Japan, following the explosion of the first atomic bomb. A few remaining buildings stand guard in a completely devastated area scattered with debris. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped This photo dated August 1945 shows a man whose back has been totally burnt during the atomic bomb dropped by the US on Hiroshima. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped 6th September 1945: Hiroshima one month after the atomic bomb was dropped. In the background is the dome of the Hiroshima Observatory which survived the explosion and remains as a shrine to the event. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped Circa 1947: A victim of the American atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, shows the burns on his arms. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped Circa 1947: Yoshie Amaha, a patient at the Tokyo Imperial University Hospital, displaying injuries suffered as a result of the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima on the 6th August 1945. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped 6th August 1945: A building stands in ruins after the atomic bomb blast at Hiroshima. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped A victim of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Getty Images In pictures: Hiroshima after the bomb dropped This file picture dated 1945 shows the devastated city of Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb was dropped by a US Air Force B-29 on August 6, 1945. Getty Images

The treaty will enter into force three months after the document is ratified by 50 countries. It is legally binding for an unlimited period. The text of the charter also bans threats to use nuclear weapons.

In direct reference to A-bomb survivors, victims of the atrocity, which killed more than 140,000 people, will be provided with medical care and rehabilitation.

However, none of the countries known or believed to have nuclear weapons - the US, Britain, Russia, North Korea , France, India, Pakistan, and Israel — is backing the pact.

Nikki Hayley, the US Ambassador, agreed in principle on the ban but suggested “we have to be realistic”, according to Time magazine.