RIGA, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Latvia's top state officials on Wednesday took part in several events marking the Day of the Defeat of Nazism and commemoration of victims of World War II, local media reported.

Led by Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, who represented Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins while the latter is attending an European Union (EU) meeting in Brussels, government ministers, officials and foreign diplomats gathered at the Riga Brethren Cemetery to lay flowers in remembrance of the soldiers and civilians killed in the war.

Later, at the Salaspils Memorial, which has been set up outside Riga on the site of a wartime concentration camp, Rinkevics stressed the significance of this place for Europe as the approximately 3,000 people who died at the camp included not only local civilians and members of the national resistance movement but also Russians, Poles, Belarusians and people of other nationalities from other European countries.

"Today in Latvia, just like in other countries in Europe and all over the world, we mark the Day of the Defeat of Nazism. We commemorate the innocent victims who perished in the World War II, including those who died here, in the Salaspils camp," the minister said at the event, which was also attended by members of the public.