Wellington - Thieves robbed a group of New Zealand war veterans Saturday as they marched in honour of their dead comrades on the country's most sacred day of remembrance, known as Anzac Day. When the vets got back to their Returned and Services' Associations' (RSA) club rooms at Waitakere, near Auckland, after the annual dawn service they found 2,600 New Zealand dollars (1,456 US dollars) they collected the day before by selling remembrance poppies on the streets had been stolen.

The money was intended to be spent on welfare benefits for poor veterans of two world wars.

"I just can't believe they took that from people who gave so much," local RSA president David Bell told Television New Zealand.

"It's akin to robbing a soldier's grave," said a woman relative of a veteran. (dpa)