More than 200 bodies found at Indigenous school in Canada

In Canada, the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried in the country’s largest Indigenous residential school.

The school was one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.

More bodies may be found because there are more areas to search on the school grounds.

The Canadian government apologised in Parliament in 2008 and admitted that physical and sexual abuse in those schools was rampant, as many students recall being beaten for using their native languages at school. They also lost touch with their parents and customs.

From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were require to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a programme to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to switch to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. As such, many were beaten for using their native languages, and up to 6,000 children are said to have died.