15 April 1989

The circumstances

¶1.77 Consistent with the Operational Order, many spectators arriving in Sheffield on trains and coaches were escorted by the police from their point of arrival to the stadium. As they approached the stadium there was no filtering of the crowd and the bottleneck at the concourse in front of the turnstiles became tightly packed. With walls, fences or gates to the sides and front of this small area, the only relief was to move backwards. Many more fans arrived, oblivious to the mounting crush at the front, and the situation in the vicinity of the turnstiles soon became critical.

¶1.78 As kick-off time approached, the crush worsened, and men, women, children and police officers struggled to breathe. Mounted police officers were trapped in the crowd. In later testimonies police officers stated that the crowd grew 'unruly', 'nasty' and 'violent', but people caught in the crush gave a contrasting account. They felt there had been no attempt to manage the crowd, no filtering and no queuing.

¶1.79 The Police Control Box, the centre of the policing operation at the stadium, was positioned inside the ground, elevated above the Leppings Lane terrace, giving a commanding view of the pens below. At 2.30pm the bank of CCTV monitors in the box showed the build-up of fans in Leppings Lane and at the turnstiles.

¶1.80 As the crush became critical, C/Supt Duckenfield faced a serious dilemma. The senior officer outside the ground, Superintendent Roger Marshall, radioed that unless the large exit gates were opened to relieve the crush there would be serious injuries, possibly deaths. Hesitating, C/Supt Duckenfield gave the command to open the gates.

¶1.81 Gate C was adjacent to the turnstiles and once opened the crowd walked through into the inner concourse behind the Leppings Lane terrace and the North Stand. Fans recalled 'hanging back' to wait for the congestion to ease. When Gate C opened they walked onto the inner concourse and down the tunnel.

¶1.82 The tunnel was directly opposite Gate C and the sign above read: STANDING. The gates at the head of the tunnel were fastened back against the wall. Oblivious to the layout of the terrace, and unable to view the terrace from the tunnel entrance, more than 2,000 fans descended into the already packed central pens.

¶1.83 When they arrived at the bottom of the tunnel the central fence forced them left into pen 4 or right into pen 3. There were no stewards at either end of the tunnel. The central pens soon held twice their capacity. There was no respite to the sides or front and the sheer volume of people prevented escape back up the tunnel.

¶1.84 As the teams ran onto the pitch for the 3pm kick-off, the crowd cheered but already in the central pens people were screaming. Others fell silent, unconscious. Survivors described being gradually compressed, unable to move, their heads 'locked between arms and shoulders ... faces gasping in panic'. They were aware that people were dying and they were helpless to save themselves.

¶1.85 In pen 3 the pressure became so severe that the faces of fans at the front were pressed into the perimeter fencing, distorted by the mesh. As fans lost consciousness some slipped to the ground under the feet of others unable to move. Survivors recall the gradual compression on their chests preventing them from breathing.

¶1.86 Fans screamed at the police on the perimeter track to open the small gate in each pen onto the pitch, 'but they just seemed transfixed. They did nothing'. As fans tried to climb the overhanging perimeter fence, officers on the track pushed them back into the crowd.

¶1.87 In the Police Control Box, C/Supt Duckenfield and his colleagues had a clear view of the packed central pens and the underpopulated side pens. Having opened the exit gate, he had failed to order the closure of the tunnel. He stated later that he had confidence that officers 'were patrolling the concourse area' and acting 'on their own initiative ... would have taken some action in the tunnel'.

¶1.88 From the Police Control Box he watched fans trying to climb from the pens. Subsequently he reflected that it did not occur to him that they were trying to escape a crush. Then he saw a perimeter gate open, apparently without authority. 'My perception is ... it was a pitch invasion'.

¶1.89 This was the message transmitted to officers throughout the stadium as they rushed to the Leppings Lane perimeter track. They assumed they were dealing with crowd disorder and a pitch invasion rather than severe crushing. Initially, they responded accordingly.

Rescue and evacuation

¶1.90 Fans were pulled from the pens through the two narrow perimeter track gates and were laid out on the pitch. As bodies multiplied the area became crowded. Many of the injured were unconscious, some were not breathing, and some had no heartbeat. It was clear that if any could be rescued, urgent resuscitation was necessary.

¶1.91 The first-aid assistance at Hillsborough was provided by 30 St John Ambulance officers, five of whom were young cadets. Four South Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (SYMAS) staff were also present in case a more serious or widespread emergency occurred. The number of injured requiring urgent resuscitation overwhelmed first aiders, and their efforts were supplemented by police officers and by spectators, including doctors and nurses who were at the match.

¶1.92 Ambulances arrived at the loading area designated in the Hillsborough major incident plan, and it was necessary to carry injured spectators almost the full length of the pitch. Fans tore down advertising hoardings as makeshift stretchers and ran to the ambulances. When they arrived they were directed to lay people down in the stadium gymnasium, located at the rear of the North Stand.

¶1.93 Those considered beyond help were placed in a part of the gymnasium designated as a temporary mortuary, while others were placed separately to await removal to hospital. By 4.30pm all of these casualties had been transported by ambulance.

The gymnasium as a temporary mortuary

¶1.94 It was decided to continue using the gymnasium as a temporary mortuary pending the identification of the dead. The gymnasium was divided into three sections by drawing sports nets across the width and hanging sheets from them. At the end furthest from the entrance the bodies were laid out in body bags. The central section was used as a police rest area and the section closest to the doors was arranged for statement-taking.

¶1.95 In the entrance area to the gymnasium notice boards were used to display Polaroid photographs of the dead. Each photograph was given a number corresponding to a body on the gymnasium floor. Each body was allocated a police officer who was given a bucket, water and a flannel to clean the faces of the dead. Those who were dead on arrival at the hospital or who died there were returned to the gymnasium.

¶1.96 On the suggestion of a vicar, a disused Boys' Club, close to Hammerton Road Police Station, the police centre of operations, was opened as a reception centre for relatives and friends seeking information. It was an old, damp and unwelcoming place with no adequate amenities for receiving people.

¶1.97 At the hospitals had received casualties, survivors and those searching for their loved ones were accommodated in the canteen areas. These locations comprised the route followed by many people throughout the evening as they searched for friends and relatives.

¶1.98 Following consultation with the Coroner, the police-led process was set in motion shortly after 9pm. People were bussed from the Boys' Club to the gymnasium. There they waited in the car park, blankets around their shoulders, before being called to the entrance. They queued to view the unclear photographs of the dead.

¶1.99 When a face was recognised the number was called and the corresponding body was wheeled on a trolley to the gymnasium door. There was little time allowed for contemplation, touch was restricted and privacy denied. Relatives and friends of the deceased were then escorted to police officers sitting at tables, who took statements.

¶1.100 The identification process caused distress for families: the use of poor-quality Polaroid photographs, uncategorised by gender or age; the presentation of the dead in body bags, often in a dishevelled state; time and privacy, crucial for grieving, were denied as the police, pressured by the need to process waiting relatives, were keen to complete the identification quickly.

¶1.101 Following identification, relatives or friends were interviewed by CID officers. Questioning included details of their journeys to Sheffield, whether they had attended the match and whether they had consumed alcohol. Personal questioning extended to the reputations of their loved ones whom they had just identified. The primary objective appeared to be investigation rather than identification, a view corroborated by other workers involved.

¶1.102 Relatives had faced a long and uncertain wait. Although the bodies were quickly laid out in the gymnasium it took over four hours to initiate the identification process. Many of the bereaved waited for over seven hours before they made an initial identification. They had been searching hospitals and/or waiting at the disused Boys' Club. In some cases they were given inaccurate information. At the Northern General Hospital a hospital administrator stood on a table to give information, including descriptions, to those waiting in the canteen.

¶1.103 Most survivors, some of whom had rescued others and had attempted to resuscitate them, left Hillsborough to travel home. They had assisted the evacuation of bodies from the pens, back through the tunnel and onto the pitch. In both locations supporters tried to revive and comfort the seriously injured and to transfer them to ambulances or to the gymnasium. Others, some with medical training, helped in the gymnasium.

¶1.104 The boundaries between the categories of 'bereaved', 'survivor', 'witness', 'rescuer' and 'helper' were blurred. Yet there was no recognition of the enormous contribution from, and the impact suffered by, supporter-survivor-rescuers in formal debriefing. Most fans who had contributed did not consider asking for help, and those who did were dismissed.