The answer to this is both complex and distressing. Wikipedia will not give you an adequate answer, nor will anyone on this site. You need to read the report from the 'Hillsborough Panel' that was published last week.
The disaster resulted in 96 deaths. Most died from asphyxia and heart failure due to being 'crushed to death'. Most of the victims were young... between the ages of 16 and 30... and some children.
They were crushed because the police who were managing the ground on that day, forced too many fans into too small an area, and despite the fans pleas for help as they suffocated, they were ignored... and even those few who attempted to escape were forced back into the 'enclosure' because the police believed they were causing trouble rather than trying to escape a tragedy.
Afterwards, the South Yorkshire Police mounted a campaign of lies in order to hide their incompetence. They said the fans were drunk... they weren't. They said the fans arrived late... this was true but it was because the police blockaded the fans coaches and made them walk between 20 and 30 minutes to the stadium. They said the fans had no tickets... a blatant lie. They said the fans were violent... another lie. They said the fans 'stormed' a gate... yet another lie.
The Prime Minister and her press secretary spread the lies about those fans throughout parliament and the media helped them do it. They made up stories about the fans that were wholly untrue and spent years trying to persuade us despite their knowing they were lying.
Kelvin McKenzie and Rupert Murdoch (you know... the guy who taps murder victims phones)... conspired with the government and the police authorities to cover their ineptitude by portraying the dead as hooligans. 10 year old children... portrayed as drunk, ticket-less hooligans... and the child's parents didn't matter because they were just Liverpudlians.
What actually happened on that day was not just the tragedy... what actually happened was that Britain was shown to be a grubby immoral place. Governed by bastards, policed by inhuman criminals... and populated by bigoted idiots.
Read the report for yourself... but read it honestly. Those people at least deserve that.
>>>2,000 -3,000 fans who had been drinking all day
err, the point is that that was a smear story now found to have been eagerly created by the police. Obviously some of the fans did drink alcohol, but it is impossible to say this was to any excessive degree,
It was a major incident nobody expected. Those days there was no major incident training sessions and, poor risk assessment . Like all tradgedies, we learn by them. What is unforgivable is the lack of humanity and empathy that followed. Im suprised more ppl did not die.
Look up You Tube....Liverpool were allocated the smaller Terrace at Hillsboro...12,000 fans were already packed inside when another 2,000 -3,000 fans who had been drinking all day turned up and tried to force their way into the ground...result a huge crush that killed 96 people...in 2011 The Bishop of Liverpool was asked to Chair a new Review into whether the Liverpool fans were responsible...it's like asking Hitler to oversee the Nuremburg Trials and... surprise surrise... he said Pool fans were not to blame...anybody who attended matches in the 70's and 80's where Liverpool fans rioted almost every weekend will laugh at this judgement....next thing they will be telling us the 38 Italian fans killed by Pool suppporers at Heysel never happened .it's whotewashing history....
How ignorant can anyone be?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsboroug...
I know around 90 people died due to being crushed, but how exactly?
