City silent in memory of fans tragedy
A MOMENT’S silence has been held 35 years on from the Hillsborough disaster.
Ninety-seven men, women and children died following the tragedy at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest on April 15 1989.
Yesterday, at 3.06pm, the time the match was stopped, a minute’s silence was observed in Liverpool.
Members of the public gathered in Exchange Flags, behind the town hall, where You’ll Never Walk Alone was played.
Ninety-seven balloons were released at Anfield in memory of those who lost their lives.
The Mersey ferry sounded its horn at the beginning and end of the minute’s silence and traffic was held through the Mersey Tunnels.
Flags were flown at half mast on civic buildings and football club sites throughout the day.
Sir Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool’s manager at the time of the tragedy, and the club’s current manager Jurgen Klopp were among club officials who laid flowers at Anfield stadium’s Hillsborough memorial on Monday morning.
Inquests into the deaths, held after the original verdicts were quashed following the Hillsborough Independent Panel report, concluded in 2016 and found the victims were unlawfully killed and errors by the police and ambulance service caused or contributed to the deaths.
The match commander on the day, David Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017, but was cleared in 2019 at a retrial held after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.
A spokesman for the Hillsborough Law campaign said: “Today, we pay tribute to all 97 supporters, they will never be forgotten, and we fight on in their memory and for all those who have suffered such injustice at the hands of the state.
“The truth of what really happened on that dreadful day was not revealed for decades because public authorities and officials concealed the truth in their own interests.