Record number of people show up for Ljubljana WWII memorial march

A record number of 42,680 Slovenian and international marchers have attended the 60th annual Walk along the Wire in Ljubljana in memory of the barbed wire that kept the city under the lockout during World War II.

The three-day event culminating on Saturday came to memorize the Victory-day of WWII in 1945, according to the report by Slovenian Press Agency (STA).

Some 9,700 hikers walked on Saturday the entire 35-kilometer circular trail tracing the wire around Ljubljana, with 3,200 taking shorter sections of the path.

The Saturday event was after thousands of kindergarten and school children walked smaller sections of the Walk around the Wire in the previous two days since May 5.

Apart from the people of Ljubljana, the event attracted visitors from Slovenia and abroad, as well as some celebrities, including Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar, who walked a section of the route on Saturday morning.

Before heading out, Cerar issued a statement on his Twitter account saying the event was in memory of the tough times in which Slovenians rose up bravely against those who tried to crush them.

"I am confident that we are willing to join forces courageously again today," Cerar was quoted by the STA report.

The barbed wire around Ljubljana was put up in 1942 by the Italian occupying forces in order to stop supplies to the Partisan resistance.

Ljubljana was the only European city at the time to be locked out in such a way, a regime lasting for 1,170 days until the end of WWII in 1945.

Put up within three days in the length of almost 30 kilometers, the wire was lined with bunkers and minefields and patrolled by 2,500 troops. Endit