Hillsborough: Liverpool falls silent to mark 35th anniversary

Liverpool has observed a minute's silence to mark the 35th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

The silence was held across the city at 15:06 BST, the precise time the FA Cup semi-final football match, held in Sheffield, was halted in 1989.

A bell at Liverpool Town Hall tolled 97 times in tribute to each of the men, women and children who died as a result of the stadium crush.

Flags were also being flown at half mast from civic buildings.

Among those paying their respects, Liverpool FC players, staff and officials laid wreaths at the Hillsborough memorial at Anfield stadium.

CEO Billy Hogan, Sir Kenny Dalglish and the respective managers and captains of the club's men's and women's teams also paid tributes, alongside club ambassadors Ian Rush, John Barnes and Natasha Dowie.

A wreath laid by manager Jurgen Klopp and the team was accompanied with a message reading: "Forever in our hearts, the 97 will never be forgotten."

In an online statement, Liverpool FC said 15 April was "a significant and poignant date in the club's history".

"One which brings LFC together in remembrance and thought to remember the 97 who lost their lives and to share love and support for their families, the survivors and all those impacted by the tragedy."

Ninety-seven balloons were also released at Anfield and plans are in place for the town hall to be lit up in red this evening.

Speaking at a gathering in St John's Gardens in the city, beside a monument to the Hillsborough victims, Stephen Wright, whose brother Graham died in the disaster at the age of 17, said it was a "massively important" day.

"We get our strength from the people," he said.

"The same people who have supported us all through the years. It's very important because it gives us strength because we all know this day is coming up and we get anxiety for weeks beforehand. To see all these people helps get us through."

Speaking outside Anfield stadium, Debbie Matthews, who's brother Brian died, said the families "were thrown together in a club 35 years ago, a club that none of us wanted to be a member of".

"This is the only time we get together and its very important to get together on this day every year," she said.

"The toll that all the fighting has taken on everyone is immeasurable. It's there all the time - it will never go away."

In 2016, a jury concluded the victims were unlawfully killed and found the supporters did not contribute to their deaths.

The families' campaign was helped by the setting up of the Hillsborough Independent Panel, which assisted in the full public disclosure of information relating to the disaster.

Professor Phil Scraton, the primary author of the panel's report, said today's tributes would also remember "the suffering of hundreds of survivors, and the endurance of the bereaved, many of whom have died prematurely as a direct consequence of their loss".

While the families achieved the inquest verdicts they had hoped for, he said: "It remains a stain on the justice process that no individual nor organisation has been held accountable in a criminal court."

Council leader Liam Robinson said 15 April was "always a very poignant" day in the city.

"Families right across the city and beyond will be thinking so much about the disaster," he said.

"I can't imagine for the families involved just how tough today and each anniversary and everyday actually will always be because the fact that loved ones went to a football match and didn't come home."We have to support the families, victims and survivors because equally it affects many, many people who attended that match."

Lord Mayor Mary Rasmussen said the bell tolling 97 times to remember each victim "takes you back to the day".

"You remember the sequence of events, who was there and who we lost," she said.

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