IT was the tragedy which led to a worldwide outpouring of grief and changed safety legislation in the UK forever.

On Hogmanay, 1929, a panicked stampede swept through the Glen Cinema in Paisley after smoke from a smouldering roll of film in the projectionist's booth blew into the auditorium.

Video by Colin Mearns

In the chaos 71 children were trampled to death or suffocated in the crush as hundreds piled towards the exits, only to find them locked from the outside and only capable of opening into the room.

Today, a wreath will be laid at the town's cenotaph which, sits across from where the cinema once stood, to mark the 90th anniversary of the disaster.

And though the newspaper cuttings which speak of the day's terrible toll may have faded, for those who were there the memories are as sharp as ever.

Robert Pope was just seven-years-old when he and seven other friends decided to head to the cinema for the screening of a western called 'the Desperado Dude'.

Mr Pope said that the decision had been made the day before while he and his friends played football in the street, and he funded his admission ticket by selling two jelly jars for a penny and a ha'penny.

He would survive the disaster because he stayed in his seat despite the panic around him ,something he puts down to a guardian angel looking out for him.

Mr Pope said: "During the time you are waiting for the film to come on it's bedlam. Kids shouting to one another and woman up on the stage with an old piano.

"You didn't know the time - there was no children with a watch. The only time you knew that the picture was coming on was when the attendant came around dimming the lights.

"The big cheer went up 'aw this is it! There was a few comedy pictures - Buster Keaton and that - and then it came to the cowboy picture, 'the Desperado Dude'."

The 97-year-old recalls the moment the tragedy unfolded, saying it was just as the film's hero rode to the villain's den to rescue free the captured heroine.

He said: "The film cut short and was smoke at the back of the hall. It began to come into the room and somebody shouted 'fire', and everybody panicked except me.

"What happened was that the people at the front of the hall ran to the back where there was an exit door. But it was locked and it opened inwards instead of outwards, so people at the front couldn't get back to let the doors open, and the people at the back were pushing them against the doors.

"My guardian angel took over my body and I just sat as I am sitting now. Everybody was rushing round about me and the person sitting next to me, Willie Spiers, was killed.If I had gone out with him I don't know what would have happened to me."

He sat there until a fireman came and tapped him on the shoulder, asking the little boy what he was still doing there.

Mr Pope said: "I said 'I'm waiting for the picture to start, mister'. He said there would be no more pictures for me, and that I should go straight home to my mother."

Word of the tragedy unfolding at the cinema had already spread around the town, and the young Robert got home just as his mother rushed out the door to try and find him.

He said: "You saw the relief on her face, and I got a big hug. If I had not met her when I did she would have been up at the hospital looking at injured children and dead bodies. I don't know what that would have done to her."

Just a few days later, on the fourth of January 1930, a steady procession of small white coffins marked Paisley’s day of mourning.The disaster sparked headlines across the world and led to changes in the law which ensured that cinemas would have more exits and that escape doors were to be fitted with push bars that opened outwards, which are still in place to this day.

A limitation was also placed on the capacity of cinemas and a requirement for an appropriate number of adult attendants to ensure safety of children.

Fellow survivor Emily Brown was just five when she was caught up in crush in the cinema, and was rescued when she was pulled through a smashed window by a firefighter.

The 95-year-old, who had gone to the Glen Cinema with her older sister jean and three-year-old little sister Mary, said: "We all panicked and tried to get to the door, but the door was locked from the outside that day. They had to open up the balcony because there were so many kids there.

"I got separated from Jean and Mary and was pushed about. I saw another little girl with an 18-month-old wrapped in a shawl against her body. I don't think they got out.

"Jean being a bit older just didn't let go of Mary's hand and kept her safe. I was pushed into the door. I did not know where I was.

"A fireman smashed a window and got me out, and instead of me walking home and going up the road I went up the Glasgow road and my aunt found me and took me home."

She added: "I knew a lot of them [the victims]. They were neighbours and friends. My next door neighbour, Julia Irvine and the wee girl who went to the Oakshaw school school with me, Lily Buchanan and her cousin, they both died."

earlier this month, paisley marked the anniversary of the tragedy with a lantern procession and service at paisley Abbey, an exhibition of letters of condolence sent to the town and with the screening of a commemorative film documenting the disaster.

The wreath-laying will take place on the morning of the 31st at the Cenotaph.