Former Baltimore Police officer Michael A Wood Jr caused a storm on social media after tweeting shocking examples of police misconduct that he says he witnessed while on the force.

These allegations come under the shadow of allegations that police brutality caused the death of Freddie Gray, leading to riots across the city in April.
We asked Sgt Wood, who left the department in 2014, to elaborate a bit more on the allegations in his tweets. The allegations, which have not been independently verified, include officers attacking a woman, defecating in beds and racially targeting suspects.
Baltimore Police say the allegations are "serious and very troubling" and called on Mr Wood to provide full details so they can launch an investigation. Their full response is included at the end of this piece.
WARNING: This piece contains explicit language.
I was a rookie in around 2005. The detective was coming out of the door at the same time. He bumped into her and when she turned, she was like "excuse me". He immediately reached back, smashed her in the face. I'm paraphrasing, but he said "bitch you don't talk to me that way".
I was a rookie, I didn't know anything. I just got scared and got into my car and left.
What was her race?
She was black.
Was that a factor?
I don't know, this officer was such an asshole I'm not sure it would have mattered. To you this is shocking but I don't think a single person that lives in a low income area in any city in America would find that a shocking statement.
I was a rookie again. I got a call on the radio that there was a foot chase, "I got a black male running".
I corner him in an alley, he tried to get away, there is a little bit of a struggle but no big deal. I handcuff him and as he is laying on the ground, the officer that was chasing him comes round the corner.
And with a steel-toed boot, just boom right in the face. His eye instantly swells up and he is hurt pretty good.
This was cowardly but I just went, "What the hell dude?"
I said: "He's your suspect and I'm out of here."
Did you think to report it?
No! That would have been unheard of. Anyone who runs gets beat up. That's common in America. I wasn't putting myself in the victim's shoes, I was thinking this isn't me. This guy is an asshole but this isn't me - I'm out of here.
In around 2008, I ended up being assigned to a plain clothes anti-narcotics unit. We would do big raids around the city, and you would frequently do big raids with people you didn't know.
So we were in a raid [in a suspect's home], and somebody was pissing on a pillow and somebody else was shitting in the corner - and it was just like, what the hell are these guys doing?
In the car the detectives with me were like who the hell does this? Apparently some people did it in the past and it was a throwback to then.
This seems very brazen - you would be leaving a lot of forensic evidence?
Right! I said the same thing. Someone is going to be like someone pissed on my sheet. They are going to be like, [the evidence] it's right there! The detectives said they would just say the canine did it - it's not like someone is going to test it. It's a plausible excuse.
The Wire isn't Baltimore but it's got some dramatically accurate representations. There are a load of officers, and there are a bunch of black guys on the corner and they jump out of there car and search them. And as long as they're cool they say "alright man, get off the corner".
Legally you can't go into their pockets, you can't search them but that happens to everybody. You just grab them and start searching them. I did it, we all do it - it's what police do. Those are all illegal searches.
How frequently did you do it?
I was standing there doing it with everybody else. That's just what you're taught to do. You don't even think -  it's what you do.
This was a realisation that I didn't even come to until very recently. So I ended up getting my bachelor's degree when I was in the police department. I started reading things like Freakonomics - things that teach you to think from a critical perspective.
I was a shift commander, and I told the shift that when you go out there doing car stops:
"I don't want to see you stopping an old lady - this is Baltimore! You stop 16-24 year old black males."
Why? Because 16-24 black males are the ones who commit all the crime. It's not until later that you complete the logic circle and realise that black and white [people] have drug possession at the same rate. You are only locking up black guys because they have drugs on them, and then they get in more trouble. We didn't know about the concept of institutional racism.
You left in 2014 - is that common?
Oh it will continue to be common until somebody takes over an agency and says no [to racial profiling].
If the officers are found guilty of Freddie Gray's murder how will the police respond?
I don't think there is [any] chance that they will be happy that a murderer was caught. That seems unfathomable right now. They're gonna feel like their people got railroaded. They're still in us versus them, they don't see Freddie Gray as a human being victim. They see Freddie Gray as a them, as somebody else, a bad guy.
The recent allegations made by Mr Michael Wood are serious and very troubling.  The Police Commissioner has made clear that the Baltimore Police Department will never tolerate malicious conduct.
We hope that during his time as both a sworn member and as a sergeant with supervisory obligations, Mr Wood reported these disturbing allegations at the time of their occurrence.  If he did not, we strongly encourage him to do so now, so that our Internal Affairs Division can begin an immediate investigation.
In a recently published letter to the Baltimore Sun, the Police Commissioner made clear that his reform efforts remain focused on rooting out the type of conduct that is alleged.


Ed Miliband has carried out a mini-reshuffle of his top team after Jim Murphy quit the shadow cabinet to run to become leader of Scottish Labour.

Mr Murphy has been replaced as shadow international development secretary by transport spokeswoman Mary Creagh.
Ms Creagh is succeeded by Michael Dugher, a close ally of Mr Miliband's.
Lucy Powell has been promoted to the shadow cabinet to take on responsibility for day-to-day operations for May's general election.
Ms Powell, a former chief of staff to Mr Miliband who became an MP only in 2012, promised to inject some new "energy and vigour" into Labour's campaigning on the ground.
She told the BBC she would review the party's campaign machine to ensure it was working "at its very best".
"I am going to make sure we put out the very best of our talents and communicate the very strong message that we have got going into the next election and unblock the system so our operation is serving all of those fantastic candidates, our fantastic front bench and our leader," she said.
Labour is facing a growing threat from UKIP in some traditional heartlands in the north-west of England.
It hung on to the seat of Heywood and Middleton, which is close to Ms Powell's Manchester Central seat, by just 617 votes last month.
Ms Powell, who was previously an education spokeswoman, said shadow ministers "need to be more visible and I will enable them to do that" in her role - previously held by Mr Dugher.
She added: "I am going to get Ed Miliband out there more because he is a fantastic asset out in the country meeting people directly and talking to people directly, not seeing things through the prism of the media down here [in London], who do not always give him the best ride."
The BBC's chief political correspondent Vicki Young said the changes were a reflection that Labour wanted it election campaign machine to run "more smoothly" and portray a more female-friendly image.
One recent opinion poll suggested that Labour support had dipped below 30% for the first time since 2010 amid concerns about the party's economic policy and Mr Miliband's leadership.
In other changes, Jon Trickett has been brought into Mr Miliband's office as a senior adviser while Alison McGovern has replaced Ms Powell as shadow children's minister. Anas Sarwar, who quit as the deputy leader of Scottish Labour, will take a shadow ministerial role in international development


Hugh Grant has accepted a "substantial sum" after settling his legal claim over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, his solicitor says.

The actor was one of the victims of the illegal practice which led to the closure of the newspaper last year by its publisher News Group.
His lawyer said the money would be donated to the Hacked Off campaign, which promotes a responsible press.
News Group settled 22 other cases earlier in December.
Grant's solicitor, Mark Thomson, said in a statement: "Hugh Grant has today settled his claims for damages and other legal remedies arising out of the unlawful activities of News of the World journalists and others over a number of years.
"News Group Newspapers have agreed to pay him a substantial sum by way of damages."
Mr Thomson also said the actor had "instructed us to donate all of his damages plus an additional payment from him to the Hacked Off campaign for a free and accountable media".
"A statement in open court will be made shortly in the new year," he added.
The NoW was shut down by owner Rupert Murdoch following the revelation the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler had been hacked.
The scandal also led to the establishment of the Leveson Inquiry into press ethics, an MPs' inquiry and the launch of three police investigations into alleged widespread phone hacking and corruption.
Grant - who is a high-profile member of Hacked Off - has been one of the leading voices in the campaign for stricter regulation of the press.
He gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and said at the time it had become "extremely fashionable" to hate him and journalists were "entitled to their opinion".
However, he criticised press intrusion and what he called "lazy reporting".
"There has been a section of our press that has become allowed to become toxic over the last 20 or 30 years and its main tactic is by bullying and intimidation and blackmail," he said.
Meanwhile, some 100 UK editors and publishers, including The Sun's Dominic Mohan and Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre, have been meeting to discuss proposals for a new independent press regulator - as recommended by Lord Justice Leveson in his report.


With rising chatter anticipating the publication of the Supreme Court ruling on whether Parliament has to vote on the triggering of Brexit, via the now-famous Article 50, next week's biggest parliamentary event will probably be the ensuing ministerial statement giving the government response.

And parliamentary follow-up can also be expected after it was confirmed that Theresa May will make her long-awaited major speech on Brexit on Tuesday, which might offer some glimpses of the government's negotiating aims.
Elsewhere, after a government defeat and a tied vote this week, it looks like a quiet week in the Lords (unless Article 50 fallout intrudes).
Peers look unlikely to push back at the government after MPs rejected changes they had made to the Policing and Crime Bill. There are plenty of amendments down for the committee stage of the Higher Education and Research Bill - but despite the continuing chuntering around this measure, there seems little enthusiasm to push any of them to a vote.
Watch out to see if Labour moves fast to move the writ for a snap by election in Tristram Hunt's Stoke on Trent Central (Jamie Reed in Copeland has yet to actually resign, and may not quit till the end of the month... although campaigning is already under way in his seat, and MPs from various parties have already been up to show the flag).
Here's my rundown:
The Commons meets at 2.30pm for Communities and Local Government questions (which may include some attempts to anticipate the forthcoming Housing White Paper - there might be a ministerial statement on this at some point, but it is also possible the government will wait until the sound and fury around the Article 50 judgement has died down....)
The end of question time at 3.30pm is the usual slot for any urgent questions or ministerial statements - the main debate due to follow is the second reading of a fairly uncontroversial bill to improve the governance arrangements and transparency of the National Citizen Service Bill  - which provides volunteering opportunities for young people.
Select committee of the day is the Transport Committee hearing on Rail Safety (4.05pm) with witnesses from the British Transport Police. This is the focus of the industrial dispute at Southern Rail.
In the Lords (2.30pm) watch out for Crossbench Baroness Meacher's question on legalisation of assisted dying for terminally ill patients - the government has no plans to legislate on this, after the strong Commons rejection of Rob Marris's Assisted Dying Bill.
But the issue has resurfaced because of the case of Noel Conway, a terminally ill motor neurone sufferer who is going to the High Court to challenge the blanket ban on assisted suicide for terminally ill, mentally capacious people. He fears being entombed in his body and choking to death. Baroness Meacher says 82% of the population believe such patients have the right to control at the end of life and to end intolerable suffering.
There's also the now standard Brexit question; the Crossbench peer Lord Dykes (ex Lib Dem peer, ex pro EU Tory MP) will ask about the request by TUC General Secretary that the UK secures full membership of the EU Single Market.
When they turn to law-making, peers are expected to perform their last rites on the Pension Schemes Bill third reading pretty rapidly - there's just one, uncontroversial government amendment to deal with.
And then the Higher Education and Research Bill moves into its third day of committee consideration. The focus will be on clauses dealing with the new Office for Students, getting students on to the electoral register, mental health, accelerated degrees, fees, and credits. As noted above, I doubt the battery of amendments put down by peers across the party spectrum will actually be pushed to a vote, but there is certainly a feeling that their concerns are not being taken on board...
The latest to weigh in is the Constitution Committee which is concerned that the bill transfers powers, including the power to bestow university status upon an institution, from the Privy Council to the new Office for Students. Along with the influential Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee they are concerned about a lack of parliamentary scrutiny for the use of these powers.
There will also be a short debate on the impact on litigants in person of the introduction of administration charges and other costs when bringing claims in courts and tribunals, led by Baroness Gardner of Parkes
Meanwhile, across the corridor in the Moses Room there will be Grand Committee debate on a European Select Committee report on the implications of Brexit fisheries - a series of debates on these EU reports is expected over coming weeks.
The Commons opens (11.30am) with Treasury questions, followed by a Ten Minute Rule Bill on burial rights reform, from the Conservative David Burrowes. He's following up on a constituency case where there was a family dispute over who had rights over a relative's grave - he wants the law to prioritise the wishes of the deceased.
The day's main debates are on two SNP Opposition Day motions; first, the impact of leaving the EU on the rural economy, where there are concerns about the repatriation of powers to the Scottish Government after Brexit, replacing EU support for hill farming and about seasonal labour at harvest time; second, on the impact of DWP policies on low income households, which will range across the phasing-in of Universal Credit and the closure of job centres in Glasgow.
In Westminster Hall, the afternoon debate (2.30pm-4pm) on the effect of the UK leaving the EU on infrastructure in Wales, is led by Labour MP Stephen Doughty. And at 4pm, former Justice Minister Dominic Raab raises the interesting issue of police support for investigations when UK nationals are murdered abroad - this picks up on the case of a constituent who was murdered in the Caribbean island of St Lucia. In particular, he wants clarifications about the support available to families where someone is murdered in a state with weak or dysfunctional policing.
My select committee pick is the Defence hearing (11.30am) on the Annual Report on the Armed Forces Covenant, with minister Mark Lancaster. The committee has taken an increasing interest in welfare issues like the use of Larium, the activities of the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (IHAT) and deaths during training, since the last election...so some of these subjects could well come up.
In the Lords (2.30 pm) question time includes a Lords classic from the Conservative Viscount Ridley, who will ask ministers about the bicentenary of David Ricardo's principle of comparative advantage and the case for free trade - do I detect a Brexit subtext?
The peers get their first debate on the Neighbourhood Planning Bill - the key issues will include neighbourhood planning, pre-commencement planning, compulsory purchase orders, the planning register; and housing.
A Housing White Paper is expected to be published in the near future and some of its proposals might be added on to this bill.
In the Commons (11.30am) MPs open with half an hour of Scottish Questions, followed, at noon by Prime Minister's questions. The day's Ten Minute Rule Bill, from Labour's Joan Ryan, is on establishing an international fund to support Israeli-Palestinian co-existence projects.
That is followed by the latest in the series of general debates on the ramifications of exiting the EU - this one will focus on security, law enforcement and criminal justice. Expect much probing about which European law enforcement institutions the government will wish to keep Britain in - with additional interest because this is very much the PM's old stamping ground.
In Westminster Hall (2.30pm-4pm), the Lib Dem Mark Williams leads a debate on the future of the Welsh language broadcaster S4C.
And from 4.30pm-5.30pm, the pro-Brexit Conservative, Gordon Henderson, has a debate on the process for the UK to leave the EU.
My committee pick is the Environment Food and Rural Affairs hearing on Food Waste with witnesses from Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose and Morrisons. And with a new committee looking at ways to reduce the size of the House of Lords, the Lords Constitution Committee hearing (10.30am) on legislative process, with Professor Lord Kakkar, Chairman of the House of Lords Appointments Commission, might be one for the aficionados to watch.
In the Lords (3pm) the main event is ping-pong with the Commons over their amendments to the Policing and Crime Bill, where MPs have removed Lords amendments on an inquiry into police collusion with the press and on financial support for victims families in inquests. Will peers back down, or fire alternative amendments back to MPs?
Next comes the third reading of the Wales Bill - where there are a few last-minute tidying-up amendments, which should be dealt with very rapidly, and then peers move on to day four of the Higher Education and Research Bill committee stage (see above).
For real hard-core aficionados, the day ends with a debate led by the former Head of the Civil Service Lord Butler of Brockwell on including statistics on the time spent on parliamentary proceedings on each part of an act in the explanatory notes on Acts of Parliament.
The argument, put by former Parliamentary Counsel Daniel Greenberg (Parliamentary Counsel are the specialist lawyers who draft legislation) is that line-by-line scrutiny of legislation in both Houses had "become diluted to such a degree that it can no longer be described as taking place", and as a result there were "often lengthy and significant parts of a bill that receive no detailed scrutiny at all at any point in its parliamentary passage".
So he proposed that publishing detailed breakdowns of the number of hours spent debating devoted to on each section of a bill, and in particular listing clauses where no substantive discussion took place. The idea seems to be to shame governments into allowing more systematic scrutiny. I daresay more general gripes about the law-making process will surface - the speakers' list for the debate includes the former Clerk of the Commons, Lord Lisvane, and the former Conservative Chief Whip, Lord Ryder. Anoraks will be worn.
In the Commons (from 9.30am) half an hour of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs questions is followed by mini-question times to the MPs who speak for the Church Commissioners, the House of Commons Commission (its administrative arm), the Public Accounts Commission and the Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission.
Then comes the weekly Business Statement from the Leader of the House - after its failure to appear in last week's list of forthcoming debates, MPs will be keen to see whether their vote on the plan for a multi-billion pound revamp of their Victorian home has been scheduled. There's increasing concern that disaster may engulf the building if nothing is done, but at the same time the criticism of the plan to spend a fraction of the amount proposed for Westminster on restoring Buckingham Palace has alarmed many. "At least the Queen is popular," one senior MP remarked.
The main debates are on two subjects chosen by the Backbench Business Committee - on Kashmir, on a motion noting escalating violence on the Indian side of the line of control, and calling for the UK government to raise the issue at the UN. Second is a motion to mark Holocaust Memorial Day 2017.
In Westminster Hall (1.30pm) there's a debate on the decommissioning of in vitro fertilisation and other NHS fertility services, led by the cross party trio of Steve McCabe (Labour), Ed Vaizey (Conservative) and Tom Brake (Lib Dem). They complain that NHS guidance on the availability of in vitro treatment is disregarded by most, possibly all, Clinical Commissioning Groups, leaving hundreds of parents trying to have children in great distress.
In the Lords (from 11am) question time includes Lord Green of Deddington asking about of the number of new homes required for migrants in England in each year up to 2039, and Baroness Grender following up her private member's bill on letting agents with a question on steps to implement the ban on lettings fees announced in the 2016 Autumn Statement - she will be probing just how comprehensive the ban will be, and whether loopholes will remain for lettings agents to exploit.
The main debates will be on subjects chosen by backbench Lib Dem peers - and as is now usual, the first will be on a Brexit-related topic, with Lord Clement-Jones raising the impact of UK withdrawal from the EU on the creative industries. Then Lord Bruce of Bennachie (the former MP Malcolm Bruce) has a debate on challenges to the liberal international order by the development of populism and nationalism around the world.
In to Commons (9.30am) it's another day devoted to private members' bills. Top of the agenda is the second reading of the Conservative John Glen's Merchant Shipping (Homosexual Conduct) Bill - a straightforward one-line measure to repeal laws allowing merchant seamen to be sacked on the basis of homosexual conduct. Last year the equivalent clauses applied to military personnel were repealed in the Armed Forces Act. This is an uncontroversial hand-out bill, with full government support, so it will almost certainly become law.
Next is the Highway Works (Weekend Working and Traffic Management Measures) Bill from the Conservative, Wendy Morton, which deals with weekend and bank holiday working and provision about removal of traffic lights and other traffic management measures after the completion of works.
Further down the agenda, where it might just get a few minutes of debate, lurks Caroline Lucas's Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (Statutory Requirement) Bill and behind that, her Railways Bill, which requires the transport secretary to take control of passenger rail franchises when they come up for renewal.
And then there's Frank Field's Housing Standards (Preparation and Storage of Food by Tenants in Receipt of Universal Credit or Housing Benefit) Bill, which aims to ensure that rented accommodation meets minimum standards for the hygienic storage and preparation of food; contains adequate appliances, equipment and utensils.  Interesting subjects all - but unlikely to be discussed.
The adjournment debate led by Maria Caulfield, is on what is fast becoming one of the hardy perennial subjects for this parliamentary niche, Southern Rail.


Chelsea striker Diego Costa has been ruled out of Spain's World Cup qualifier with Macedonia and friendly against England.

The 28-year-old injured his groin during Chelsea's 5-0 Premier League victory over Everton on Saturday.
He has been replaced in the squad by Celta Vigo forward Iago Aspas.
Spain, who are top of their qualifying group, face Macedonia in Granada on Saturday before travelling to Wembley to meet England on Tuesday (20:00 GMT).


Benefit claimants in Glasgow may have to travel further for employment services under UK government plans to close half the city's 16 job centres.

The Scottish National Party described the proposal as "morally outrageous".
It said those from the poorest areas would face higher travel and phone costs, making it harder to seek work.
The Department for Work and Pensions said the closures would save public money and reflected an increase in use of online and telephone services.
Under the plans, there would be no job losses among Jobcentre Plus staff, while claimants would not have to travel further than four miles or 40 minutes.
•       Castlemilk and Langside Jobcentres will move to Newlands Jobcentre;
•       Parkhead, Easterhouse and Bridgeton Jobcentres will move to Shettleston Jobcentre;
•       Anniesland Jobcentre will move to Partick Jobcentre;
•       Maryhill Jobcentre will move to Springburn Jobcentre; and
•       Cambuslang Jobcentre will move to Rutherglen Jobcentre.
Jobcentre Plus offices in Govan, Drumchapel and Laurieston will be unaffected.
Denise Horsfall, DWP work services director for Scotland, said it was now easier for claimants to access Jobcentre services "whether that be in person, online or over phone".
"By bringing together a number of neighbouring jobcentres we're continuing to modernise our operations while ensuring that our premises provide best value to the taxpayer," she said.
The DWP said there would be a public consultation in areas where customers had to travel more than three miles or more than 20 minutes.
SNP Trade Unions spokesman Chris Stephens MP said the closures would affect about 68,000 people in receipt of Jobseeker's Allowance, Employment Support Allowance and Universal Credit.
"Given the brutal sanctions regime this will mean that the numbers facing sanctions will undoubtedly increase," he said.
He claimed Jobcentre closures costs would be placed on the "people it should be assisting - and those already on low incomes" through increased travel costs and reliance on "expensive" 0345 numbers.
He added: "These plans make Glasgow the guinea pig, as I fear the closures announced will be used as a template for further closures across Scotland and the UK."
A DWP spokeswoman said: "Claimants can phone for free using 0800 numbers, and 0345 numbers are charged at local rates.
"The relocations are part of a programme looking at the entire estate across the UK.
"In other parts of the country, some Jobcentres have already moved."
Scottish Greens co-convener Patrick Harvie MSP said the UK government seemed to be "going out of its way to make the prospect of finding employment even more difficult".
"Moving these centres further away from the people they serve in Glasgow will do nothing to reduce unemployment in the city," he said.
At parliamentary questions, SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson MP asked why the UK government was planning to make a "disproportionate" amount of the cuts in Glasgow, when the overall plan across the UK was to cut the estate by 20%.
Leader of the House David Lidington - who was filling in for Prime Minister Theresa May - said the focus should not be the number of offices, "but about how accessible the offices and services continue to be to the people who need them".
Citizens Advice Scotland also raised concerns about the proposals, and said its research suggested a third of Scottish CAB clients were unable to use a computer due to lack of access or skills.
It said travel could also be difficult for some people due to sickness, disability, cost or availability.
A final decision on the plans is expected to be made within six months, with a view to completion by 31 March 2018.


The self-driving bubble car developed by Waymo, part of Google's parent firm Alphabet, is to be phased out, the firm has announced.

The two-seater vehicles, which have no pedals or steering wheels, travelled millions of miles in road tests.
Waymo is now concentrating on integrating its technology into other vehicles rather than building its own.
In a blog post, the firm said it was working on a fleet of 600 Chrysler Pacifica minivans.
Unlike the Firefly, which could only travel at 25mph, the minivans can drive at full speed.
"From the beginning, Firefly was intended as a platform to experiment and learn, not for mass production," wrote lead industrial designer YooJung Ahn and lead systems engineer Jaime Waydo.
"By designing and building a truly self-driving vehicle from scratch, we were able to crack some of the earliest self-driving puzzlesâ€Šâ€”â€Šwhere to place the sensors, how to integrate the computer, what controls passengers need in a car that drives itself."
The pair added that using an existing car would enable the firm to bring self-driving technology "to more people, more quickly".
Fireflies will be displayed in Austin and Mountain View in the US and at the Design Museum in London.


Memory can become more powerful as the years go by.

The centenary of the start of the Battle of the Somme is being marked with more ceremony and international attention than was given to the half-century in 1966, though there were many veterans there who could remember the sounds of the fighting. Now there are none.
Maybe it's because we live in warring times. Or, just as likely, because increasingly the Great War hasn't been seen as one awful sprawling event - the four years that bloodied and scarred a generation - but as the opening of a conflict that shaped the whole of the 20th Century, through World War Two to the division of Europe and the Cold War that followed.
That's why, when you watch visitors pointing to headstones in the cemeteries on the Western Front, you see them putting together the story of one solider - a great-uncle, grandfather, maybe even a father - with a broader understanding of the cost of modern warfare.
Live coverage: Battle of the Somme centenary
Part of the loss of innocence after 1914 was the realisation that a new kind of battle had begun, on a scale unimaginable to a generation who thought that Waterloo was the grandest of struggles.
The British line on the first day of the Somme was only 14 miles long.
Within a few hours more than 19,000 had died and more than double that number lay wounded.
It was the worst day in the history of the British army, before or since. They fought on for 141 days, through the mud and slime of the autumn, and when it was over the line had advanced seven miles.
Walking through those fields this week, with slender poppies colouring the barley with drops of red, I was struck again by the awful intimacy of the struggle.
The gentle rise outside the village of La Boiselle where the German and British lines were less than a mile apart when the first charge was made at half-past seven in the morning.
The tiny stone shrine that was the machine-gun post; the small cemetery in the trees where they buried the men of the Devonshires on the very ground where they had sheltered in their trenches before 1 July, waiting for the order to go over the top.
Along the road, I found a small plot where the dead from the Gordon Highlanders were buried after that first day.
It was a regiment that recruited from the towns and villages that I knew as a boy in north-east Scotland, and the names on the white stones were like a call from home.
For anyone visiting these places, there are similar sharp shafts of memories.
When "pals' battalions" went forward on some parts of the line, men recruited from the same streets or workplaces fell together in their dozens at the same moment, so that whole communities took the blow.
Never mind that about nine out of 10 of those who went to war came home in the end; these wounds cut deep, and never healed.
I spoke to schoolchildren coming here for the first time, thanks to a British Council project.
They had been trying for a few months to learn how the war had affected families in their community, in east London within the sound of Bow Bells.
They'd found relatives still living in the same streets, as if a century hadn't passed after all.
After the two-minute silence on Friday, and the act of remembrance at the huge stone memorial at the Thiepval cemetery later in the day, that generation might still want to keep the story of the Western Front alive.
They might understand that if the last century has been shaped by war above all, and our Europe forged in that furnace, this is where you can still feel the fire.


Worcester City are waiting to give a debut to their latest signing, former Romanian top-flight midfielder Marius Ologu, after spotting him at training - with another non-league club.

Ologu, 26, has come in from West Midlands League Premier Division side Dudley Town on a short-term deal.
"He was training with the group coming on after us," said boss Carl Heeley.
"As we were packing the kit away after we'd done, we were watching and this one lad stood out by a country mile."
The City joint manager told BBC Hereford & Worcester: "We could have said it was the European scouting network that we'd set up, but I don't think anyone would have believed that. The fact is, we've taken a punt on him.
"When we pulled him out and had a little word with him, it transpired that he'd played in the Romanian top flight and had come over to England looking for a professional club. It's a strange stroke of luck. We'll just have to see how he copes with the rigours of National League North."
"We don't know how we he'll adapt but we've given him a short-term deal. He's got great technique and he works hard but we need to get his fitness up. He played in a friendly at Halesowen, scored a great free-kick and looked very lively, but he unfortunately picked up a little groin strain which has knocked him back a bit."
After a poor first half of the season, relegation-threatened City, last season's FA Cup heroes, currently stand 16th in National League North ahead of Tuesday night's home game with fellow strugglers Stalybridge Celtic, when victory would lift them seven points clear of trouble.
Back in Romania, Marius Ologu began with his hometown club Universitatea Craiova, for whom he made 17 appearances before leaving in 2011 to join Astra Ploiesti.
He has since played for Turnu Severin, Targu Mures, Caransebes and National Sebis, prior to coming to England to sign for Dudley in December.


At the London Metal Exchange - owned by China since it was bought by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange three years ago - the shouts of traders haven't been replaced by the silent hum of trading computers.

The other thing that hasn't changed is the importance of the financial sector to the British economy. Preserving the City's position has been a priority for the government - so China unsurprisingly looms large in British foreign policy.
Looking back, the coalition government has repeatedly emphasised the importance of engaging more with emerging markets, so re-balancing away from Europe and towards fast-growing countries like China.
But, with China, there is a balance to be struck between economic gains and addressing political issues such as human rights.
When David Cameron met the Dalai Lama in May 2012, he was cheered by some. But China froze out Britain for more than a year, and when relations finally thawed, Britain seemed to redouble its efforts to make up for lost ground.
The focus of its efforts is the Chinese currency. Dubbed the internationalisation of the RMB or Yuan, the Chinese government is promoting the use of its currency in overseas markets - a significant reform since the RMB is closely controlled and this is the first step towards it becoming freely traded. When it does, the RMB would rival the US dollar in importance.
The government wants London to be the leading Western hub for the offshore trading of the Chinese currency. After all, London is the dominant player in foreign exchange markets, but it wouldn't remain so for long if it didn't trade the RMB.
Last summer, the Chancellor George Osborne hosted the Chinese premier along with a high-level delegation. They were pleased to announce that Britain was granted links with a Chinese bank that would provide it with RMB which would help cement the government's ambition.
Shortly thereafter, the Luxembourg Finance Minister told me that they were also granted links with a Chinese bank.
And that captures the Chinese attitude toward Europe. China keeps European nations on their toes.
Does China need Britain? Probably not as much as Britain needs China. After all, China can choose to partner with Luxembourg or Germany to access overseas markets.
It may explain why Britain was the first Western nation to apply to join the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) last month. The AIIB pools money from member countries to invest in infrastructure in Asia.
Others like Germany quickly followed. This was despite American protests since the AIIB is a direct challenge to the World Bank, which is led by America.
The US is critical of Europe shifting East even as President Obama pursues his "Asia Pivot" that reorients American foreign policy towards Asia - though it should be noted that the pivot excludes China in key respects.
For Britain and other nations, it is tricky positioning between two superpowers.
It is worth bearing in mind what the economist John Kenneth Galbraith once observed: "Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite."


The attainment gap between pupils from the wealthiest and least well off backgrounds has widened, according to the Scottish Conservatives.

The party said pupils from well-off backgrounds were seven times more likely to get three Higher A grades than those from poorer homes.
Tory leader Ruth Davidson revealed the statistics as she challenged Nicola Sturgeon on the issue at Holyrood.
Ms Sturgeon said there had been some progress in closing the gap.
She said 40% of pupils from the 20% most deprived areas getting at least one higher, up from 23% in 2007.
And the first minister said 300 primary schools across the country were already benefiting from support through a Â£100m attainment fund.
But she acknowledged: "I am not standing here, I never have stood here and said that there's not more work to do.
"But we are seeing in many respects evidence of the attainment gap narrowing."
The Conservatives said the figures released to them under freedom of information legislation showed that, of S5 pupils who sat Higher exams last year, 21.13% of the most privileged achieved three As, up from 20.31% in 2013.
But in the poorest fifth, just 2.99% got three As, compared to 2.90% the year before.
The Conservatives said that meant the attainment gap increased by almost 1% between 2013 and 2014, despite SNP pledges to close it.
The statistics showed that in four council areas - Argyll and Bute, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian and Midlothian - not a single pupil from the most-deprived areas attained three As in their Highers.
Ms Davidson also cited a report by the Commission for School Reform which earlier this week questioned the Scottish government's ability to close the gap.
The commission, chaired by educationalist Keir Bloomer, said that while few would disagree with ministers' desire to tackle the issue, their policy priorities were "exceptionally ambitious" and the timescale "may well be unrealistic".
Ms Davidson said: "We knew that the SNP government was not closing the attainment gap but now from these figures we know that that gap between the richest and poorest students is actually getting wider.
"The first minister has said that she wants to be judged on her record. In education, her record is one of failure and the experts say that her plans won't fix it.
"How bad do things have to get before we see the action we need?"
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie criticised the government's plans for standardised testing.
He said: "The first minister told me she was against league tables but she has told journalists that she is not going to stop them putting primary schools into league tables.
"If she doesn't want them, why is she going ahead and taking all the steps to make them happen?"
Ms Sturgeon responded: "I stand by what I said. I have no interest in crude league tables that offer no meaning to parents, nor do I have any interest in a system that would encourage teaching to the test.
"But I do think it is incumbent on me as first minister to make sure that children's progress is being assessed in a way that better informs the judgements teachers make about their performance."


A row has erupted over Madonna's comments about US President Donald Trump during a speech at the weekend.

While taking part in a protest march in Washington DC on Saturday, the singer said she had thought "an awful lot about blowing up the White House".
Trump supporters reacted angrily, claiming that there would have been uproar if such a comment had been made about former president Barack Obama.
Madonna has now said her remarks were taken "wildly out of context".
"I am not a violent person, I do not promote violence and it's important people hear and understand my speech in its entirety rather than one phrase," she posted on Instagram.
She added she was trying to express there are two ways to respond to Donald Trump's election - with hope or with anger - and said she wanted to start a "revolution of love".
Madonna had been attending the Women's March in Washington DC - one of several anti-Trump protests taking place around the world over the weekend
Several news networks had begun broadcasting Madonna's speech live on Saturday but many cut away after she swore several times.
"Yes, I'm angry. Yes, I am outraged. Yes, I have thought an awful lot about blowing up the White House. But I know that this won't change anything," she said in her speech.
After Madonna made the comments, White House chief of staff Reince Priebus told Fox News: "One of the singers said she wanted to blow up the White House. I mean, can you imagine saying that about President Obama?"
Kellyanne Conway, a senior White House aide, described Madonna's speech as "destructive".
She also drew attention to some reports that the secret service had been made aware of the singer's comments.
Threats against the US president are routinely taken seriously by the secret service but one US official told the New York Post it would depend on whether Madonna's remarks were considered a genuine threat.
"It's all about intent. Is she intending to do harm to the White House or President Trump? Otherwise it will be characterised as inappropriate," the official said.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


The Duke of Cambridge has met Chinese President Xi Jinping, as the prince begins the highest-profile UK royal visit to China in nearly 30 years.

The president said the Royal Family had contributed "positively" to co-operation between China and the UK.
Prince William presented him with an official invitation from the Queen to make a state visit later this year.
The meeting in Beijing's Great Hall of People also saw the two men discuss their mutual love of football.
The prince's trip will see him promote "brand Britain", highlight the illegal wildlife trade and visit some of the nation's most famous sites.
Chinese officials say the prince and the president discussed wildlife protection, one of the duke's great passions.
Prince William is the most senior British royal to visit China since the Queen's tour of the country in 1986.
Prince Charles has never visited China and he described Chinese officials as "appalling old waxworks" in a leaked diary, written at the time of the Hong Kong handover in 1997.
He has also hosted the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader who is viewed by China as a separatist threat, at Clarence House.
BBC China editor Carrie Gracie said the meeting between Prince William and the Chinese president symbolised an improvement in the relationship between the two countries. The relationship is now focused on business after a run of political differences over Hong Kong and Tibet, she said.
Speaking through an interpreter, President Xi told the prince: "The British Royal Family holds great influence, not just in the UK but across the world.
"Over the years the Royal Family has shown great interest in, and support for, Chinese/UK relations.
"And members of the Royal Family have done a lot and contributed positively to changes and co-operation between our two countries in areas ranging from trade to environment protection... and cultural exchanges."
He also said the prince's visit would "surely go a long way to developing mutual understanding and friendly ties between China and British people".
Prince William thanked the president "enormously" for inviting him to the Great Hall of the People and said: "It's been a long interest of mine, for many years, to come and visit China."
The prince, who is an Aston Villa fan, talked about their mutual love of football.
"I'm looking forward to learning about China's football," he added.
The first full day of his three-day visit to China also brought a visit to Beijing's famous Forbidden City, the imperial palace complex of successive Chinese emperors.
While at the British ambassador's official residence, the prince was tasked with adding the finishing touches to TV cartoon character and successful British export Shaun the Sheep.
It is one of five sculptures on display in the ambassador's garden and is part of the Year of Cultural Exchange, a celebration of UK and Chinese creative talent set up by both governments.
The duke also visited a traditional courtyard house, which has been been restored and turned into a museum by charities related to his father, Prince Charles.
He then flew to Shanghai where he launched the three-day business exhibition the Great Festival of Creativity, which will promote British innovation and push the benefits of doing business with UK firms.
He told invited guests that the businesses and entrepreneurs at the festival were a "source of significant pride" for the UK.
"But it is not just the creative strength on display here that makes this Great Festival worthy of its name. It is also the openness and warmth of our Chinese hosts that we will be celebrating over the next few days," he said.
At the state level, the objective of Prince William's three-day visit is to promote "brand Britain", and at a personal level, it's an opportunity to talk about his abiding passion: elephant protection.
But three days is a long time in royal diplomacy and although William is already more deft at this kind of thing than his father or grandfather, he will have to move nimbly to dodge the elephants in the room.
Read more from China editor Carrie Gracie.
In Shanghai, the prince will also attend the premiere of the Paddington movie. He will travel on to Yunnan province, where 250 wild Asian elephants still roam free.
The prince will give a speech at a regional wildlife and conservation conference after seeing rescued elephants and learning how local communities live alongside the large animals.
The prince is on a tour of China and Japan to promote UK relations and business partnerships with both countries.
In Japan, he took part in a traditional tea ceremony, toured some of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic sites and visited Fukushima and the northeast region of the country, where thousands were killed in an earthquake and tsunami in 2011.
The Duchess of Cambridge is not with her husband as she is due to give birth to their second child in April.


A woman who lost her home to the sea says she is "fighting to keep her life together" after being threatened with eviction from her caravan.

Bryony Nierop-Reading, 70, was forced to live in her field after her bungalow in Happisburgh, Norfolk, fell over the cliff during last winter's tidal surge.
But North Norfolk District Council says she needs permission to live there.
Ms Nierop-Reading says she is "on the verge of losing everything". The council has yet to comment.
The former teacher moved to her 1930s bungalow on Beach Road in 2008.
As the cliff-face eroded, virtually all of her neighbours moved out two years later after accepting compensation from North Norfolk District Council.
Believing she would enjoy another 20 or so years of spectacular sea views, she declined.
But a few harsh winters, along with a clear-up of the ageing sea defences on the beach, left her home teetering on the edge within five years.
She has since moved to her caravan, which for years has been sitting on her land near the house. However, the council says she cannot live in it long-term unless she gets planning permission.
With the sea a few feet away, she has been told it is unlikely to be granted.
Ms Nierop-Reading says she wants to stay in the caravan until 2016 when her daughter and son-in-law, who are tenants in her inland home, will be able to buy it from her. This will then enable her to purchase another Happisburgh house.
But if she is told to leave beforehand, she says she will be homeless and unable to guard her workshop, which she feels will be targeted by thieves.
"I knew some day it would come, but losing the home has caused such a sense of shock which I'm only just recovering from. My brain turned into a sponge," said Ms Nierop-Reading.
"At the age of 70 I've lost my house and now I'm on the verge of losing everything. I'm fighting to keep my life together."
The council, which has threatened Ms Nierop-Reading with an eviction notice but not yet enforced one, has yet to comment.


It looked for a while that the most remarkable aspect of a relatively low-key campaign could be two of the Stormont parties apparently breaking the rules over their manifesto launches.

First, UKIP left itself open to a dressing down from the Assembly Commission over its use of a committee room to promote its local policies .
Then the DUP ran foul of Transport for London over its eye catching decision to unveil its manifesto against the backdrop of a Wrightbus Routemaster double decker.
TFL made it clear it wouldn't have given permission for the use of the Routemaster if asked in advance because of the "pre-election rules for public bodies".
Which raises the question in my mind: If posing on a bus is forbidden territory for candidates, what protocols were in place for all those hospital visits Messrs Cameron, Miliband and Clegg have been pictured making in recent weeks?
I suspect the DUP's spin doctors won't be overly concerned about TFL's belated expression of annoyance.
They will welcome rather less Mary Hassan's Paxmanesque grilling of David Cameron on BBC Radio One's Newsbeat.
One DUP source argued that, on balance, it was better to be talked about than not, but the party has been relatively sheepish about highlighting its views on moral issues, especially on outlets where their views will be scrutinised by the London media and political classes.
Viewed from Belfast, the question may be:  Who will the DUP deign to support in the event that they hold an influential position in a hung parliament?
But the exchange between Mary Hassan and David Cameron turns the query the other way around.
It highlights the potential downsides to either Labour or the Conservatives from appearing to be too cosy to a party with the DUP's track record on gay marriage, the conscience clause and the blood ban.
Mary Hassan isn't the first to raise this point.
Similar concerns were highlighted by the left-wing New Statesman before the campaign got under way, whilst the Lib Dems, eager not to be rendered irrelevant in any future deals, included some DUP politicians' fundamentalist views on homosexuality in a deck of cards they distributed as part of their spoof "Blukip" warning .
The achilles heel in the Newsbeat exchange was the use of the term "coalition".
The DUP has already pointed out that it doesn't want to be part of a coalition, but has in mind a looser "confidence and supply" arrangement.
Both Labour and the Conservatives may be wary of their own grassroots' reaction to a formal link with the DUP given its moral perspective.
But that doesn't mean that - if the arithmetic adds up - either will spurn its backing on a vote-by-vote basis.
If we are about to enter an era of minority government at Westminster, it's conceivable a future prime minister might well turn to the DUP for some votes, whilst doing business with other smaller parties when the issue doesn't match the DUP's moral compass.


Power-hungry apps that drain the battery on Android phones even when they are in a sleep state are being tackled by US researchers.

Apps that regularly check for updates consume about 30% of the battery power an Android phone loses when in that mode, say the researchers.
They have created a free Hush tool that lets only the most-used apps check in while the phone is off.
Hush can cut power loss from the apps by almost half, say the team.
Hush was created by engineers from Purdue University in Indiana after they carried out a large-scale study of energy use on Android smartphones.
The analysis of power-consumption patterns on 2,000 handsets found that a lot of energy was wasted by badly written apps that did not let a phone go back into a sleep state after they checked for updates, said Prof Y Charlie Hu from Purdue.
"They are not letting the phone go back to sleep because of software bugs and, specifically, due to the incorrect use of Android power control application programming interfaces called wakelocks," he said in a statement.
The first versions of the Hush tool did a better job of handling wakelocks and policed which apps were allowed to wake a phone up and download data, said the team.
The batteries on Android phones using Hush lasted about 15% longer than those without it, suggested early results.
The Purdue team is now working to improve the tool so it can keep an eye on other functions on a phone to see which ones can be minimised to reduce the power they drain.
Prof Hu said the team's ultimate aim was to double the battery life of a smartphone.
"Much of the battery drain is caused by various apps when the screen is on and also legitimate maintenance functions," he added.


Olympic swimmer Dan Wallace has been suspended from the British and Scottish swimming programmes for three months after admitting to drink-driving.

British and Scottish Swimming called it "clearly unacceptable behaviour".
"It is with much regret that I was found to be driving under the influence of alcohol," said the 24-year-old, who trains at Stirling University.
"Not only have I let myself, my family and team-mates down, I have put others at risk and I am profoundly sorry."
In May 2014, the former Warrender Baths Club swimmer was arrested in Florida - where he was attending the state university - for urinating on a police car.
Later that year, Edinburgh-born Wallace became widely known for his yell of "for freedom" when he set a British record to win the 400m individual medley for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
He said at the time it was a "spur-of-the-moment thing", inspired by the film Braveheart, and nothing to do with the vote on Scottish independence that was soon to follow.
Wallace was part of the GB men's 4x200m silver medal-winning relay team at last year's Olympics in Rio.
In a statement, the Scot said: "I recognise that I am in a position of influence and this type of behaviour is not acceptable in any way, shape or form.
"I am now looking to rebuild trust in everyone who has supported me and put their faith in me, and will do whatever it takes to come through this a better, stronger person.
"I am deeply sorry."
British Swimming and Scottish Swimming say Wallace is banned from all national programmes until 12 September.
The organisations say he has also signed "a letter of intent outlining his commitment to work with the necessary support systems provided and reaffirming his responsibility to British Swimming, Scottish Swimming and the University of Stirling as an athlete".
British Swimming national performance director Chris Spice and Scottish Swimming director of performance Ally Whike said: "We can confirm that Dan Wallace has been charged with driving under the influence of alcohol. This is clearly unacceptable behaviour from Dan and we are disappointed by his actions.
"Dan has publicly acknowledged the seriousness of his mistake and is accepting of the consequences that must follow. Together, we will now support him through this difficult period to try to get this young and talented man back on track."


Dynamo Dresden defender Marc Wachs has received emergency surgery after a shooting that killed a family member.

The 21-year-old German's injuries are not life-threatening, according to the Bundesliga 2 club.
A second family member was also injured and is in hospital after the incident in Wiesbaden, near Frankfurt.
The German club said they was "shocked, stunned and deeply saddened" and would "be wherever our help and support is needed".
Wachs was yet to play for second-tier Dynamo, having signed in the summer from Mainz, where he mainly featured in the reserve team.
"Marc, his family, and the process of recovery, both physically and mentally, are now the only priorities," said Dynamo sport managing director Ralf Minge.
"Everything else does not matter. I would also like to express our deep compassion to Marc, his family and all his relatives.
"We specifically ask you to respect the privacy of Marc and his family more than ever."


The first liner to visit Invergordon in 2017 has launched what could turn out to be its best ever year for cruise tourism.

About 1,200 German tourists are expected to make their way ashore from the AIDAvita.
Cromarty Firth Port Authority believes it will be a record year for cruise liner business.
Invergordon's projections are based on 91 scheduled calls by cruise liners and more than 142,000 passengers.
It would represent a 45% increase in trade compared to last year.
It is estimated the influx could bring in Â£14m for the local economy.


Smoking leaves an "archaeological record" of the hundreds of DNA mutations it causes, scientists have discovered.

Having sequenced thousands of tumour genomes, they found a 20-a-day smoker would rack up an average of 150 mutations in every lung cell each year.
The changes are permanent, and persist even if someone gives up smoking.
Researchers say analysing tumour DNA may help explain the underlying causes of other cancers.
Pamela Pugh, 69, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2013. She started smoking aged 17 and quit in her early 50s.
But she said: "Even though I gave up many years ago, the effects of smoking caught up with me.
"Had I known as a teenager that smoking caused mutations which would stay with me for life then I would never had started".
The study, in the journal Science, was carried out by an international group, including the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
The analysis shows a direct link between the number of cigarettes smoked in a lifetime and the number of mutations in tumour DNA.
The authors found that, on average, smoking a packet of cigarettes a day led to:
Joint lead author Prof Sir Mike Stratton, from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "The more mutations there are, the higher the chance that these will occur in the key genes that we call cancer genes, which convert a normal cell into a cancer cell."
The researchers said that in tissues such as the lung, which are directly exposed to smoke, they could find the mutational signature of the chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 60 are carcinogens.
However, they could not find this same pattern in tissues such as the bladder, which are not directly exposed.
Prof Stratton said in these organs smoking seemed to be accelerating a natural mutational process, but how it did this was "mysterious and complex".
He said the same investigative approach could be used with other cancers where the underlying causes were less well understood.
"By looking in the genomes of the cancers, we will find the archaeological traces of past exposures which have been responsible for generating the cancers and that may potentially lead to prevention," he said.
Dr David Gilligan, consultant oncologist at Papworth Hospital and Roy Castle Lung Foundation trustee, said: "For every 150 mutations in the cell each year, that is 150 opportunities for lung cancer to develop.
"Lung cancer has been at the bottom of the survival league for many years, but there are many exciting developments, including immunotherapy and genetically targeted drug treatments."
Ms Pugh has received treatment at Papworth and Addenbrooke's Hospitals in Cambridgeshire.
She has just spent six months on a trial of a drug that aims to disrupt the genes that drive the growth of lung cancer.
Participants in the Matrix trial have DNA from their tumours examined to check they have genes that may respond to the drug.
But a scan has shown the tumour in Ms Pugh's right lung is growing, and she has had to leave the trial.
She will now undergo more chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
There are 35,000 deaths a year in the UK from lung cancer, and it is estimated that nine out of 10 cases are preventable.


S4C is "extremely generously funded", UK Culture Minister Ed Vaizey has said, rejecting opposition complaints about its financial arrangements.

Labour MP Susan Elan Jones said it had been an "unmitigated disaster" to change the "financial governance" of S4C, now mostly licence fee funded.
She asked for assurances to protect its funding under BBC charter renewal.
Mr Vaizey agreed, but insisted S4C was going from "strength to strength" with programmes like crime drama Hinterland.
During culture questions in the House of Commons on Thursday, Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts asked when the Department of Culture, Media and Sport would be announcing its financial intentions for the Welsh language channel.
She said the department had cut S4C's funding by 93% since 2010 to just under £7m a year.
Mr Vaizey replied by saying the majority of funding - £74m a year - now came from the BBC licence fee, claiming that unlike many media outlets, S4C had "secure funding going forward" and had been protected from cuts.
Ms Jones complained that the UK government had failed to listen to the views of Welsh MPs, language campaigners or the channel itself when announcing changes to the way S4C was funded in 2010.
In response, the minister gave assurances that there would be measures to protect S4C's funding when the BBC's charter was renewed.
He also praised the channel's success in producing "international hits" such as the crime drama Hinterland, which he himself had "enjoyed hugely".


An Irish dance show contestant has sent viewers into a spin with the intensity of his fake tan.

Hughie Maughan's teak tone under the spotlight had viewers doing their own keyboard tap dance.
The Dublin man was appearing on Irish broadcaster RTÉ's Dancing With The Stars at the weekend.
Hughie told RTÉ's Ryan Tubridy he had laughed off the comments, claiming he had "thick elephant skin".
"The entire place was staring at me and the whole studio was looking at me, laughing and were gobsmacked," he added.
"I just found it funny. I'm one of those types of people, I'm bonkers when it comes to certain things.
"It's made people speak about me which is probably a good thing, I am on a TV show… Isn't that the point of television?"
Hughie's boyfriend Ryan Ruckledge was among those who contributed to the comments sparked by his partner's polished visage.
"He really shouldn't have taken tanning tips from me," he joked, before adding, "bad boyfriend advice hahah sorry".
The pair met on Channel 5's Big Brother programme last year.
Others compared Hughie to Ross Geller from the hit US TV show Friends when David Schwimmer's sitcom character has a spray tan fiasco.
Host Nicky Byrne said: "Hughie, you are trending on Twitter - we don't know why."


About 80,000 people could die if there were a "widespread outbreak" of an antibiotic-resistant blood infection, according to a government document.

The National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies says such an outbreak could be expected to hit 200,000 people - and two in five of them "might die".
The document also says "high numbers of deaths could also be expected" from other forms of resistant infection.
It warns infection risk could make "much of modern medicine" unsafe.
The Cabinet Office document says the number of infections "complicated" by antimicrobial resistance is expected to "increase markedly over the next 20 years".
"Without effective antibiotics, even minor surgery and routine operations could become high-risk procedures, leading to increased duration of illness and ultimately premature mortality," it says.
It says procedures such as organ transplantation, bowel surgery and some cancer treatments would become unsafe.
The document, published last month, adds: "If a widespread outbreak were to occur, we could expect around 200,000 people to be affected by a bacterial blood infection that could not be treated effectively with existing drugs, and around 80,000 of these people might die."
It says the UK government is "leading work with international partners" to tackle this "global problem".
Prime Minister David Cameron has previously warned that the world could be "cast back into the dark ages of medicine" unless action is taken to tackle the threat of resistance to antibiotics.
England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, has called the problem a "ticking time bomb".
Antibiotic use in the UK has been rising and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recently called for doctors to "question" the work of colleagues who prescribe too many.
The Cabinet Office document also rates other threats to the UK both in terms of their anticipated likelihood and their "relative impact" - with a flu pandemic and "catastrophic terrorist attacks" given the highest impact ratings.


Adam Barton has been rewarded for his role in Partick Thistle's unbeaten October by being named Scottish Premiership player of the month.

Media playback is not supported on this device
The 25-year-old Northern Ireland midfielder helped Thistle to two wins and two draws during the month.
England-born Barton, who has one cap, joined the Glasgow club this summer after leaving Portsmouth.
He followed up a fine October with a fine goal in a 2-1 defeat by Aberdeen at the start of November.
Barton started his career with Preston North End before spells with Crawley Town, Coventry City and Fleetwood Town.


The world's third largest democracy goes to the polls on Wednesday to elect some 20,000 national and regional legislators.

The 9 April election combines polls for the 560 seats in parliament's lower house, or the People's Representative Council (DPR), and for the 132 seats of the Regional Representative Council (DPD).
Indonesians also cast their ballots for 2,112 seats on provincial-level assemblies and 16,895 seats on regency-level assemblies, according to the Election Commission.
But for many the biggest consideration will be looking ahead to the presidential election on 9 July.  Parties need 20% of seats in the lower house or 25% of the vote to field a candidate.
Twelve parties will contest the elections nationally, with three more running only in the province of Aceh. This represents a major fall in party numbers since the 2009 elections, in which 38 parties ran.
All opinion polls have two opposition parties, Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and Golkar, as the likely major parties in parliament. The ruling Democratic Party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appears set to lose support.
The Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) boasts a leader, Prabowo Subianto, who is being touted as a possible presidential candidate but in order to gain anything like a majority in the DPR Gerindra would need to put together a complicated coalition.
Eyes will be on Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo, the presidential candidate of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P). Many expect him to be Indonesia's next president.
Otherwise, two very different groups of candidates have dominated media coverage - media owners and "caleg cantik".
The trend of media owners pursuing political ambitions has seen figures like Surya Paloh - owner of the daily Media Indonesia and the 24-hour news channel Metro TV - form his own National Democrat (NasDem) party, and Aburizal Bakrie - owner of the Viva group, which runs national TV networks antv and tvOne - running for Golkar's nomination.
In another trend, the Election Commission's rule stating that 30% of each party's candidate's should be women has led to the rise of the "caleg cantik" ("hot hopefuls") phenomenon, in which young, recognisable female celebrities stand as party candidates.
The Election Commission has announced that 186,569,233 people are registered to vote in this election; according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics .
A total of 54,163,376 Indonesians are between the ages of 17 and 29. Millions of young people will be casting their ballots for the first time.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. For more reports from BBC Monitoring, click here


Strong global demand for fast fashion helped drive first quarter profits 18% higher for Inditex, the owner of chains including Zara and Pull & Bear.

The Spanish firm reported a profit of 654m euros for the three months to 30 April, meaning staff shared a 42m euro bonus pot.
Sales rose by 14% to 5.5bn euros.
Zara started offering online sales in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam in the quarter and plans to follow suit in India later this year.
Online growth has helped Inditex to consistently outperform rivals such as H&M in recent years as its fast-fashion model allows it to quickly replicate the latest runway trends into stores in weeks.
While the company also owns brands such as Massimo Dutti and Bershka, Zara accounts for two thirds of group sales.
Inditex opened 30 stores in the quarter and now has 7,385 outlets in 93 countries.
Societe Generale analyst Anne Critchlow said positive currency effects meant she expected profits and margins to rise this year at Inditex.
Meanwhile, US department store chain Neiman Marcus said it had ended talks about a partial or full sale of the retailer, which has a $4.8bn debt mountain.
Its sales have been hit by stiff competition from the likes of Zara and H&M as well as Amazon.
Neiman Marcus reported its fourth consecutive quarterly loss on Tuesday of $24.9m, compared with a $3.8m profit for the three months to April last year, as like-for-like sales slipped nearly 5%.


A group of telephonists are working in tightly packed rows of desks at a secret location in Kabul, taking calls from all around the country.

A young woman in a headscarf asks the name and district of a caller. So far so unremarkable, but this is a call centre with a difference.
"Sometimes we receive calls from the Taliban," she tells me, "they call to tell us that there should be no election."
This is where our reporters share stories beyond the daily conflict and politics of a country preparing for the most important poll in its recent history as foreign troops withdraw.
We'll focus on the surprising while treating the familiar from fresh angles, combined with a street-level view of a country in transition.
Most of the posts will be written, photographed or filmed by our journalists across Afghanistan.
You can use #BBCAfghanNotebook to follow our reports via Twitter.
On song, off message
Struggling restaurants
Russian chocolate
Welcome to Afghanistan's "190" election hotline.
Around 60 staff, juggling computer, mouse and headphones provide an everyday information service, from 07:00 in the morning to 20:00 at night advising on everything you need to know about the crucial 2014 presidential and provincial polls.
The Taliban have threatened the election and everyone associated with it, so the building where they work is secured by guards and blast walls.
Qais Safi, one of the mostly young workers manning the phones says that callers usually have practical questions.
"People ask how they can get voting cards, who the presidential candidates and their deputies are, what symbols they use and what number they are on the polling papers."
Because two-thirds of Afghans are thought to be illiterate, the logos chosen to identify candidates during the campaign and on ballot papers are important, and include anything from an oil lamp to a bulldozer.
The call centre staff have been trained for three days, with more workshops to follow as the campaign unfolds.
Syed Baryali Shuaib, the head of the centre, says they get 5,000 to 6,000 calls every day, and expects numbers to rise. But only 10% of callers are female.
The Election Commission has other means to reach voters too: it produces TV and radio slots and installs roadside billboards.
And in a country with almost 20 million mobile users, SMS texts have become as important as messages read out in mosques after Friday prayers.


A 10-year-old train enthusiast has become the youngest person in Wales to adopt a railway station.

Dylan has taken on Pembrokeshire's Clarbeston Road stop and will file reports on problems and give improvement suggestions.
He developed a passion for trains while travelling on the railway with his dad Chris Allman to Swansea and Tenby.
The adoption scheme, run by Arriva Trains Wales, sees people appointed to champion rail use in their community.
Dylan said: "It's a great station with two platforms and regular trains passing through so I hope people will be able to see how we are going to look after it, keep it clean and tidy, and make it a nice place for people when they are catching trains."
While the scheme requires people to be aged over 16 to adopt a station, Dylan was allowed to get involved alongside his dad.
Their first aim is to keep it clean and plant wildflowers in time for next spring.


A pub landlady has won the latest stage of her fight to air Premier League games using a foreign TV decoder.

Karen Murphy had to pay nearly £8,000 in fines and costs for using a cheaper Greek decoder in her Portsmouth pub to bypass controls over match screening.
But she took her case to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).
The ECJ now says national laws which prohibit the import, sale or use of foreign decoder cards are contrary to the freedom to provide services.
The decision could trigger a major shake-up for the Premier League and its current exclusive agreements with Sky Sports and ESPN, and pave the way to cheaper viewing of foreign broadcasts for fans of top-flight English games.
However, whereas the decision opens up opportunities for individuals to watch overseas broadcasts at home, it remains unclear whether in future games can be shown in pubs using foreign decoders and broadcasts, as the ruling also threw up a number of copyright issues.
The ECJ said national legislation, which banned the use of overseas decoders, could not "be justified either in light of the objective of protecting intellectual property rights or by the objective of encouraging the public to attend football stadiums".
By Torin DouglasBBC media correspondent
Today's ruling could lead to a major shake-up in the way TV rights have to be sold in the European Union, not just by the Premier League, but by the Hollywood film studios and independent TV producers as well.
The makers of Spooks have warned that it could hinder investment in UK production if they can't sell the programme country-by-country.
But it's a complicated ruling - and it's not a total victory for Karen Murphy.
She can now watch Premier League matches herself via the Greek service, but it's not clear she can show them to her customers.
The court has ruled that although there is no copyright in the matches themselves, there is copyright in the "branding" around the football - the Premier League graphics, music and highlights.
If those are there, pubs will still need the League's permission to show its matches.
It's now up to the UK High Court to interpret today's ruling, and that is not likely to happen for several months.
But the Premier League's said the ECJ's answers to the High Court's questions were "complex".
"We are pleased that the judgment makes it clear that the screening in a pub of football-match broadcasts containing protected works requires the Premier League's authorisation," the league said.
Only Sky and ESPN are currently authorised by the Premier League to make such broadcasts.
"I'm relieved, very relieved," Mrs Murphy told BBC Radio 5 live.
"It has been a rollercoaster, highs and lows, nerves... It has been a strange time and I am glad it is coming to an end."
She added: "I feel I have taken on the Premier League and Sky."
Mrs Murphy said she no longer had a decoder box in her Red, White and Blue pub and would wait for the "stamp of approval" from the High Court before reinstating it.
The ECJ findings will now go to the High Court in London, which had sent the matter to the ECJ for guidance, for a final ruling.
However, it is unusual for a member state High Court to pass a different judgement from one provided by the ECJ.
Read David Bond's blog on the issue
"In practical terms, the Premier League will now have to decide how it wishes to re-tender its rights," said sports media lawyer Daniel Geey of Field Fisher Waterhouse solicitors.
"There can be little doubt it will have contingency plans ready to go and has various options available.
"Be it a pan-EU tender, selling in only certain EU member states or devising a plan to start its own channel, they will be deciding how best to maximise the value of their product to ensure any revenue shortfall is minimised."
The judges said the Premier League could not claim copyright over Premier League matches as they could not considered to be an author's own "intellectual creation" and, therefore, to be "works" for the purposes of EU copyright law.
However, the ECJ did add that while live matches were not protected by copyright, any surrounding media, such as any opening video sequence, the Premier League anthem, pre-recorded films showing highlights of recent Premier League matches and various graphics, were "works" protected by copyright.
To use any of these extra parts associated of a broadcast, a pub would need the permission of the Premier League.
It remains to be seen whether pubs could broadcast match action without using any of these Premier League "extras", such as just broadcasting from kick-off only and therefore avoid breaching the league's copyright.
By ensuring that its branding was on screen all the time, or including in-match graphics, the league may be able to claim pubs were in breach of this ECJ ruling on copyright.
"It's not a decision that the Premier League or its clubs wanted," Wolves chief executive Jez Moxey told BBC Radio WM after the ECJ ruling was made.
"The Premier League have been aware of the situation and the possibility of the judgement going against them for some time now and have been assessing how it will sell TV rights going forward.
"Football has shown itself to be a resilient business."
He said the Premier's League's financial model had been challenged by the ECJ ruling, and any future sales would need to take the court's decision into account.
By Michael StoddardBBC News
Karen Murphy's court victory was dominating conversation at her Red, White and Blue pub after news of the ruling spread.
Pub regular Nicholas Whyley, 50, said: "I am over the moon for Karen. She has been a very brave lady to take them on single-handily."
Derek Woolven, 72, said: "It's a victory for the small person. She put her whole reputation and pub on the line.
He also said he hoped the decision would stand when it went to the High Court.
Mrs Murphy's family, meanwhile, said they were "delighted" she had won her battle.
Her mother Joy Williamson said her daughter "didn't sleep a wink last night".
"It's been a huge effort over the last six years to get here but we are delighted with the ruling," she said.
And Mrs Murphy's husband Patrick Murphy, 56, said it had "always been about the principle".
"On the face of it, it looks like a blow for the Premier League and... broadcasters Sky and ESPN," said BBC sport editor David Bond.
But he said the Premier League had faced many regulatory challenges in the past and would find ways to get round the new situation.
"The League insists the ruling is not clear cut, pointing to a part of the judgment which appears to offer them copyright protection and requiring pubs to seek their permission if they wish to use foreign decoders," added our correspondent.
"It is a confused picture and it is now up to the High Court to try and interpret the judgment. Whatever happens the league is confident it is not about to suffer a major loss in TV income."
A spokesman for Sky said they were considering the implications of the ECJ ruling and how it may affect the way Premier league football rights were sold across Europe in future.
The broadcaster has pumped billions into top flight English football since the league was founded in 1992, with the money given to clubs allowing them to buy some of the top names in the world.
The Premier League's television income from mainland Europe is about £130m, less than 10% of their total £1.4bn overseas rights deal.
However, the court decision could have a significant repercussions for other rights holders outside of sport, with life potentially getting more difficult for the film industry, which also sells its product on an country-by-country basis.
Smithfield Partners is a law firm which represents David Richardson of QC Leisure (a digital box supplier), and SR Leisure Limited (a publican), all of whom were defendants to a civil action brought by the Premier League.
"We consider this ruling to be a significant step in creating fair competition across the internal market, reducing artificially inflated prices which vary across member states," said the firm's Martin Ochs.
"It also provides some clarity in relation to the rights of businesses within the EU to broadcast live football. In fact this decision is likely to have far reaching implications beyond that of football."
The legal battle kicked off six years ago, when Mrs Murphy was taken to court for using the Nova firm to show matches at the Red, White and Blue pub.
Using the Greek service, she had paid £118 a month, rather than £480 a month with the official broadcaster.
Licensed broadcasters encrypt satellite signals, with subscribers needing a decoder card to access them.
Mrs Murphy took advantage of an offer to UK pubs to use imported cards.
In February, an ECJ advocate general said this was in line with the aims of the EU single market - a border-free zone for goods and services.
The Premier League has already taken action against two suppliers of foreign satellite equipment and a group of pub landlords who used imported decoding equipment to show English Premier League games and avoided the commercial premises subscription fees for Sky.


Dutch drug smugglers may have used a fleet of ambulances to smuggle cocaine and heroin with a street value of up to £1.6bn into the UK, a court heard.

Leonardus Bijlsma, 55, and Dennis Vogelaar, 28, who had fake paramedic uniforms, were arrested in Smethwick in June, Birmingham Crown Court heard.
Drugs valued at £420m were imported, the court heard, which could have sold for four times more if cut into wraps.
The two Dutch nationals deny conspiracy to smuggle Class A drugs into the UK.
Robert Davies, opening the case for the prosecution, alleged the two men were part of a "lucrative criminal conspiracy" to sneak hauls of drugs into the UK.
The ambulance trips had been "going for weeks and months," he said.
He told the jury the operation, fronted by a bogus ambulance company in the Netherlands, may have seen "top-quality" class A drugs valued at up to £420m reach the UK, via the Channel's ferry ports.
When the high-purity drug packets were cut down to wraps, the cash value could increase four-fold to a "staggering" amount, he said.
In separate smuggling runs, the Crown alleged the accused may have used "fake patients" to strengthen their story.
"Between the vehicles, at least 45 trips can be shown to have been made in 14 months, with the final trip in June," Mr Davies said.
Mr Davies said Mr Bijlsma and Mr Vogelaar were part of a team carrying a letter purporting to be from a Dutch patient who was being taken to a London hospital for treatment.
Their ambulance was seized by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers and found to contain neatly-stacked packets of class A drugs, including ecstasy tablets valued at £60,000, behind metal-riveted panels, the court heard.
Also concealed, in colour-coded parcels was 193kg of "top quality" cocaine with a street value of more than £30m and 74kg of heroin, the jury heard.
Mr Davies described it as "an absolutely enormous amount of class A drugs".
"In truth, the ambulance was rammed with drugs," he said.
Mr Bijlsma, of Hoofddorp, and Mr Vogelaar, of Vijfhuizen, deny conspiracy to smuggle class A drugs into the UK, between April 2014 and summer 2015.
Mr Davies said Mr Vogelaar drove the ambulance to the UK, via Harwich, with a male passenger the night before they met Mr Bijlsma - who had used a car to get to the UK - and another man, in Smethwick on 16 June.
"The ambulance men got out and walked up to Mr Bijlsma, and they all shook hands," he said, adding at that moment the NCA officers swooped on the four men.
The two other detained men, Olof Schoon, 38, and 51-year-old Richard Engelsbel, were not in the dock because they had admitted conspiracy to import class A drugs, Mr Davies told the court.
Schoon, director of Dutch-based Schoon Ambulance Company, was described by prosecutors as "the central player".
The trial continues.


A former DUP councillor has admitted more than 20 fraud charges at Londonderry Magistrates Court.

Bill Irwin, who is 55-years-old, from Duncastle Road in Newbuildings, faces a total of 23 charges which date from March 2009 until February 2014.
He is accused of making a false claim to the Northern Ireland Assembly for payment towards heating oil expenditure.
The total amount involved was Â£8,960.
The court was told he had heating oil delivered to his home and was invoicing it through the DUP constituency office at Ebrington Terrace in Londonderry.
A prosecution lawyer said it was therefore being paid out of the public purse through the Northern Ireland assembly.
Irwin's defence barrister said his client was instructed to enter a plea of guilty in relation to all the charges.
During the period of the offences, Irwin was a constituency office worker in the DUP's main Waterside office.
He had previously represented the party on Derry City Council from 1993 until 1997.
The defendant will be sentenced for the offences on 1 April following the preparation of a pre-sentence report.


A dating-style app is needed to attract people to apprenticeships in Wales, the skills minister has said.

It comes as industry experts warned "inadequate" advice and "out-dated perceptions" were preventing people taking-up placements.
Last year, 45,295 apprenticeships were taken up - a 6% drop from 2014-15.
Julie James said careers advice had to be "fit for the 21st Century" and said there was a disconnect with young people which needed addressing.
Ms James told an assembly committee that changes were under way to modernise careers services in order to give school leavers all options on clearing this summer.
She added a Welsh Government-funded apprenticeship app was "not fit for purpose" and would be scrapped and replaced.
"What we have is a disconnect with young people, because I say this all the time, how can you want to be something you have never heard of? That's a big issue for us," she said.
Industry advisors from Wales' three regional skills partnership bodies (RSP) told the Economy, Infrastructure and Skills Committee last Wednesday "inadequate" careers advice and "out-dated perceptions" about apprenticeships by teachers and parents were stopping young people making informed choices about their futures.
The bodies - charged with advising the Welsh Government on funding priorities for skills - highlighted issues including:
According to the latest figures there is approximately one careers advisor for every six schools, the equivalent of one to about 4,500 pupils.
Careers Wales - a Welsh minister-funded service charged with providing impartial careers advice - will have all its web-based tools redesigned, with its apprenticeship-matching tool scrapped.
The service has experienced cuts to its budget from the Welsh Government since 2012, with funding now standing at Â£18.8m in 2017-18.
Ms James told the assembly inquiry that, while Careers Wales was adequately resourced, it needed to "rebalance where it puts its efforts".
The apprenticeship-matching tool was "not fit for purpose", she said, adding people wanted "a sort of Tinder" way of viewing careers options where they could swipe through and think "oh that one looks nice".
"I will not be happy until a parent can find out as easily how to get their child an apprenticeship as it is how to get them a psychology degree," she added.
Ms James said completion rates for apprentices in Wales were "good" and the Welsh Government engaged with 77,000 employers and 382,000 individuals in apprenticeship week.
The Welsh Government said Careers Wales was working to reduce the ratio of careers advisors to about one to every two schools.
In north Wales the number of apprentices fell by more than 14% in 2015 compared to 2014.
At the same time the number of female apprentices dropped by 1,145, while the number of men taking up the placements fell by 605.
This is despite of the success of schemes with Airbus in Deeside and Horizon Nuclear Power's Wylfa on Anglesey.
Ten apprentices for the plant are currently visiting Japan for training towards gaining a Level 2 NVQ in performing engineering operations.
Horizon will have 22 apprenticeships by September. Director of Operations, Greg Evans, said the trip would be a "character building experience for all".
Conservative skills spokesman Mohammad Asghar said while social media was a "vital tool" for engaging young people, direct engagement would be better.
"Millennials will see right through insincere attempts to ape youth culture," he said.
"Frankly, the idea of basing an apprenticeships application on Tinder sounds like something their parents would come up with - and that's just not going to cut through more than existing tools.
"But there are clear issues around the perceptions parents and children have around apprenticeships, and we do need to make information around opportunities more accessible."


The Saudi Arabia-led coalition fighting Yemeni rebels has said it will launch an investigation after more than 140 people were killed in air strikes on a funeral in the capital, Sanaa.

It would "immediately investigate this case" along with US experts.
Saudi Arabia earlier denied allegations from the rebel Houthi-run government that the coalition was responsible.
The attack targeted the funeral of the father of Houthi-appointed Interior Minister Galal al-Rawishan.
The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement:  "The coalition will immediately investigate this case along with the Joint Incidents Assessment Team in Yemen and experts from the United States who participated in previous investigations."
It referred to "reports about the regrettable and painful bombing" in Sanaa, before adding: "The coalition confirms that its troops have clear instructions not to target populated areas and to avoid civilians."
The US said it had launched an "immediate review" of its already-reduced support for the coalition.
White House National Security Council spokesman Ned Price said US co-operation with Saudi Arabia was "not a blank cheque".
He said that while the US was focused on achieving an end to the conflict in Yemen, Washington was "prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with US principles, values and interests".
Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdul-Salam said the attack was an act of "genocide".
UN humanitarian co-ordinator for Yemen, Jamie McGoldrick, condemned Saturday's strikes on the funeral gathering as a "horrific attack".
He said that aid workers who arrived at the scene had been "shocked and outraged".
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said it had prepared 300 body bags.
The ICRC's Rima Kamal told the BBC "several air strikes" had hit the venue attended by hundreds of civilians and damage to the buildings was extensive.
The Saudi-led coalition is backing the internationally-recognised government of Yemen.
Thousands of civilians have been killed since the war began in 2014.


Government plans to relax Sunday trading laws in England and Wales are facing defeat in the House of Commons.

The SNP has told the BBC and the Guardian the party has decided to vote against the changes amid fears it could drive down Scottish workers' wages.
With other opposition MPs expected to join forces with some 20 Tory rebels, the plans will struggle to pass.
Ministers are said to be considering whether the proposals might have to be delayed or even dropped.
The chancellor, George Osborne, promised in the Budget earlier this year that councils and mayors would get the power to set Sunday trading laws in their areas.
Large stores and supermarkets can currently open for only six hours every Sunday.
Although the legislation affects only England and Wales, the SNP has been convinced by shopworkers' union Usdaw that retailers would pay for the extra hours by cutting wages across the UK - including those of Scottish workers currently being paid premium wages for Sunday work.
Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, said: "SNP MPs could hold the balance of power in the House of Commons on Sunday shopping and we will not undermine shop workers.
"This legislation will impact on workers in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK and no pay safeguards have been offered by the Westminster government.
"The SNP will continue to work with the representatives of shop workers and we will oppose the Tory proposals."
The government launched a consultation over the summer to look at the changes which are designed to support High Streets and shopping centres by allowing them to stay open for longer at weekends and compete with internet shopping.
Shops in Scotland already have more freedom because the Sunday Trading Act does not apply north of the border.
Government sources pointed out that Scotland already controls its Sunday trading rules and the SNP was once again trying to block something that had no impact on their constituents. They said the SNP move once again made the case for the government's recent changes to parliamentary rules that gave English and Welsh MPs greater control over laws that affect only their constituencies.
It is not yet clear which measure the government will use to introduce the changes - either the Cities and Local Devolution Government Bill or the Enterprise Bill.
Conservative MP David Burrowes, who opposes changes to Sunday trading laws, said: "The government is set to embark on a de-regulation of Sunday trading for which there is no particular demand, which was not in our manifesto and goes against our concerns for workers for small businesses and families.
"Some 20 of my colleagues are opposed to these changes and that is more than enough to overcome the government's majority now the SNP have joined the opposition."
Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark told MPs on  Monday: "The government believe that there is a strong case for local areas to be able to decide if and where extending Sunday trading should be permitted.
"It could help some High Streets compete with online shopping, for which Sunday is regularly the most popular day."
He added: "There is a consultation out on this at the moment, but the proposal in the consultation is to allow local councils to make those decisions.
"Councils have a wide remit, social as well as economic, to look after the interests of their area.
"It could be that allowing some areas or particular stores such as garden centres to open on their busiest day - Sunday - is in the interests of everyone in the area."
Shopworkers' trade union leader John Hannett urged the government not to proceed with the changes.
He said respondents to the government's consultation expressed "a great deal of opposition" to the proposals, "because devolving these regulations will not provide help to local businesses, but will create chaos for retailers and shoppers as every local authority will have different Sunday trading hours".
He added: "Our members working in retail are extremely worried that devolution will lead to deregulation by the back door, and that is why 91% of workers in large stores oppose the proposal.
"We are aware that there is a great deal of concern and opposition among MPs from all parties.
"It would be wrong for the government to bring forward an amendment to the Devolution Bill, when Parliamentarians have not had the opportunity to read and digest the views of consultees and the government has not justified their position by issuing a reply, which is standard procedure."