Warsaw on Wednesday marked 74 years since the outbreak of an uprising aiming to wrest the Polish capital from Nazi German occupation during World War II.

Home Army soldier armed with a submachine gun defending a barricade in Powiśle District of Warsaw during the Uprising, August 1944. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

At exactly 5pm on August 1, 1944, insurgents started what would be a 63-day rebellion eventually quashed by the better-armed Germans.

At 5pm on Wednesday, Varsovians marked that moment with a minute-long silence. Cars came to a halt, people in the streets stood still and sirens wailed across the city.

Earlier, other events were held to honour the Polish fighters who took up arms in the largest WWII insurgency.

In the evening, wreaths were to be laid at a monument to Polish fighters. A sing-a-long of patriotic songs which were popular among insurgents in 1944 was to be held in central Warsaw.

The last official event was to be the lighting of a bonfire which was to burn for 63 days, to mark the duration of the Warsaw Uprising.

Some 20,000 fighters of the Polish Home Army resistance movement took up arms in 1944. Around 18,000 insurgents and some Polish 150,000-180,000 civilians were killed, according to Poland's Institute of National Remembrance.

(vb/pk)

Video prepared by the Warsaw Uprising Museum for this year's anniversary

Video prepared by the Warsaw Uprising Museum for this year's anniversary: