Incomprehensible: A little girl, soaking with rain, stands to look at a makeshift cross in Seascale where a memorial service was held today
Anguish: Betty Scoones, the mother of Darren Rewcastle, is comforted by her family as she attends the memorial service
Sombre: Around 500 people attended the service near where Bird struck
In mourning: Seascale stopped as hundreds stopped for the ceremony
Clinging to a friend for comfort, this is the grieving mother of Cumbria massacre victim Darren Rewcastle.
Betty Scoones, 69, was among 2,000 mourners at a memorial service in Whitehaven's square yesterday.
Her 43-year-old taxi driver son was gunned down in the town by mass killer Derrick Bird in what is thought to have been a dispute over fares.
In Seascale, some 500 mourners braved a torrential downpour to express their solidarity.
The 40-minute memorial service was for three victims - Jane Robinson, 66, Michael Pike, 65, and Jamie Clark, 23 - who died within minutes of each other in the village.
High emotion: One woman chews her fingernails and looks distraught
United in grief: A shrine of flowers have been left for David Bird, brother of Cumbria killer Derrick Bird and a message left at the memorial service held in Seascape this morning
A single flower was placed under a simple cross fashioned out of driftwood and left close to the shoreline.
The Reverend Richard Teal, chairman of the Cumbria District of the Methodist Church, told the gathering that the world had been left appalled by the mass killings last Wednesday.
He said that everyone in Seascale would know someone who had been killed or injured.
Margaret Davies, 62, attended the service and said: 'I just wanted to show my sense of community.
'This is a small, tight-knit town and we'll pull through but the whole community needs to stand together and that is why so many turned out.'A church service was held at St Michael's and St Mary's in Egremont where three people were gunned down. Richard Jones, 70, who has been holidaying in Cumbria for the past 40 years, said: 'I've never seen the place so silent, so shocked and so mournful.
'It breaks my heart but I know they'll unite and recover from this.'
Over faltering sound system he said that everyone in Seascale would know someone who had been killed or injured but said the local community had the power and the will to help those affected overcome the tragedy.
The residents said they had attended the memorial service to express their unity in the face of such a shocking and horrifying event.
In Egremont - which saw the killings of residents, Ken Fishburn, 71, Susan Hughes, 57 and Isaac Dixon, 64 - fell walker Richard Jones, 70, who has been holidaying in Western Cumbria every summer for the past 40 years said: 'I've never seen the place so silent, so shocked and so mournful. It breaks my heart but I know they'll unite and recover from this.'
Mr Jones, who lives just 10 miles from Hungerford in Berkshire which saw 16 people killed by Michael Ryan 23 years ago, said: 'It leave an indelible scar and the memory of it will never fade. But strong communities recover from horrendous tragedies and this community is strong enough to come back from this.'
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