Sirens wailed at 10 a.m. Thursday in Nanjing, as 9,000 people from the world attended a peace rally to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre.

Large wreaths were presented and the People's Republic of China national anthem was sung, before people bowed three times and took part in a silent tribute.

Nanjing, capital of eastern Jiangsu Province, bears painful memories of Japan's invasion of China during World War II.

More than 300,000 Chinese people, including infants and the elderly, were massacred after Japanese troops occupied the city in December 1937.

In a keynote speech at the rally, Yang Weize, secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, said, "It (the Nanjing Massacre) is the darkest part in modern civilization for human beings."

"As we review history and mourn the dead," Yang said, "we engrave the lesson in our minds 'falling behind will suffer beating, only development can make us strong.'"

People from the United States, Canada, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Greece, Nepal, the Republic of Korea and Japan attended the rally held at a square in front of the Memorial Hall of the Victims for the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders.

Zhu Chengshan, memorial hall curator, said it had been the 10th year in a row since the international peace rally was held on the massacre anniversary.

"We believe it is a good practice to promote world peace," Zhu said.

Earlier in the morning, 200 monks from Buddhist temples in Nanjing and Japan braved the cold and started a mantras chanting praying ceremony in front of a "weeping wall" outside the memorial, on which the names of victims killed during the massacre are engraved.

According to documents from the memorial hall, which has collected 25,000 pieces of evidence, more than 20,000 rapes of Chinese women by Japanese invaders occurred during the massacre. More than one third of buildings in the city were destroyed by the bombardment.