MADRID, March 11: A small glass tower channelling light into an underground chamber was unveiled as a memorial to victims of the Madrid train bombings, metres away from where the blasts killed 191 people exactly three years ago on Sunday.

King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia inaugurated the memorial -- a glittering cylinder of glass brick -- less than a month after 29 suspects went on trial in the attack that ripped apart four rush-hour trains approaching Madrid's Atocha railway station.On a sunny spring day, relatives of victims and survivors bowed their heads in silence as the king laid a wreath at the foot of the 11-metre tower -- its height a reference to the date Spain suffered its worst peace-time attack.

The tower's architects -- five friends working on their first commission -- said the design's main ingredient was light.—Reuters