FAMILY members and local residents joined forces with hundreds of students for a march through Aberystwyth on Sunday to show their support for Ifan Owens who was left critically injured in a street attack.

Ifan, a second-year criminology student at Aberystwyth, was left unconscious after being assaulted on High Street at around 2.20am on Sunday, 14 January, but awoke from his coma last week.

Friends from the UMCA, the Welsh Language Students’ Union at Aberystwyth University, gathered at Pantycelyn for a walk down through the town to the bandstand.

Also present were members of Ifan’s family including his father Gareth and his brother Tomi.

The union said the Aber Dros Ifan event was “to show that Aberystwyth as a town is behind Ifan and his family through this difficult period” and to “ensure to the students that Aber is a safe place to live".

Bucket donations were taken towards a fundraising effort for Ifan and his family that has seen Aberystwyth raise over £6,500.

UMCA president Gwion Llwyd Williams said the numbers that turned out “just shows the support Ifan and his family has here in Aberystwyth".

MP Ben Lake gave a speech and Dr Rhodri Llwyd Morgan, pro vice chancellor of Aberystwyth University, told the crowd that “the incident that led to the situation with Ifan is exceptionally rare”.

Read the full story and see more pictures from the march in this week’s Aberystwyth paper, available in shops and as a digital edition now