Veterans marked Armistice Day this morning in the city where thousands of prisoners of war died building the Death Railway in Kanchanaburi, western Thailand.

An estimated 12,621 prisons perished while constructing the railway line through Thailand into Burma to aid the Japanese Nazi axis in their fight against the Allies.

Representatives from the United Kingdom, Bangladesh, Kenya, India, the United States of America, New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands, Singapore, Malaysia, Germany and Thailand attended and laid wreaths at the memorial.

Dozens of veterans and relatives of those who were forced to construct the line between 1940 and 1943 also attended.

Japanese diplomats are understood not to have attended the event and there was no wreath bearing the Japanese flag laid at the memorial.

Armistice Day is marked each year on November 11 with a two minutes silence at 11 am to remember those who lost their lives in the two world wars.

There were 30,131 prisoners from the UK, British India and crown colonies who were forced to build the death railway, which included the bridge over the River Kwai. Of those, 6,904 were killed.

The Netherlands, or Dutch East Indies, Australia and United States had a combined 31,680 prisoners working on the railway. They suffered 5,717 deaths.