Much of Spain on Thursday fell silence for one minute to remember the 153 victims of the August 20 air crash.

Hundreds of people stood in silence for one minute in front of Madrid's city council, while Spanish flags flew at half-staff in all public offices of Madrid. The capital city has declared three days of mourning for the victims. The king and queen visited the morgue, consoling relatives of those who died.

On Wednesday, a MD-82 jet of the Spanish airline Spanair crashed and killed 153 people and injured 19 at the international airport of Barajas.

The airplane turned into fire due to the crash at the end of a lane in terminal four of the airport.

Mourning activities have been foreseen in towns nearby Madrid, like Coslada, San Fernando de Henares and Torrejon de Ardoz.

The authorities of Las Palmas in Canary Island also performed mourning events in memory of the victims of the tragedy, which is one of the worst of Spain in last 25 years.

Also in Barcelona and The Basque mourning ceremonies were performed.

Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero visited on Thursday's morning six of the survivors at the La Paz Hospital in Madrid.

Spanair said at the beginning that there were 173 people aboard with nine crew members and 164 passengers. But later the amount was reduced to 172.

Brazilian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday that one of the people who died in the accident was Brazilian Ronaldo Gomez Silva.

(Xinhua News Agency August 22, 2008)