Pizzas galore!

After 45 minutes some supporters were still being given heart massage. As the ground's gymnasium was turned into a mortuary, the injured were taken to four hospitals: the Royal Hallamshire, the Northern General, King Edward VII and Barnsley district general. Last night 73 people were being detained, 22 in intensive care.

The Queen said in a message to the Lord Mayor of Sheffield that she was shocked. ``Please give my deepest sympathy to the bereaved families and to all those who were injured.''

Last night evidence was emerging that poor organisation and stadium design faults had contributed to the crush. Liverpool had been given 24,000 tickets when its average following is 40,000, yet Nottingham Forest was allocated 30,000 when it is normally watched by only 17,000. Peter Robinson, Liverpool's chief executive, had lodged an official complaint before the match, but was told that if Liverpool had been given any more tickets, it would have caused traffic problems and potential clashes.

The crush barriers, similar to those at all football grounds, prevented escape. A doctor told of the ``sheer mayhem'' when he ran to help the dying and injured, and of inadequate emergency facilities. The sorry catalogue of errors did not end there. There was also an apparent breakdown in communications among the emergency services. Harry Wright, South Yorkshire's chief fire officer, said: ``We were informed by the police that there was a major incident at the ground and sent six pumping machines and an emergency tender, but on arrival we had great difficulty in discovering what the incident was.'' As soon as they knew, they sent for an additional four appliances and another emergency tender.

Tragedy on the terraces

• 'Mayhem' after gate was opened

• 'We watched them die, innocent figures, lying prostrate and crushed on the green grass'

• Doctors attack 'total chaos' of rescue effort

Police in 'open gate' inquiry

• The man who opened the gate

• Force condemned for failing to avert turnstile disaster

• Senior officers were not willing to concede fault

Mother tells of losing husband and son as she witnessed crush on TV

• Names of the supporters who died are released

• Liverpool welcomes vindication of fans' behaviour

• Thatcher hears of heroic courage

Anfield Kop becomes silent focus of city's mourning

• Thousands at requiem mass as Liverpool mourns deaths

• Sombre lessons soccer failed to learn

Related Links

• 'Mayhem' after gate was opened

• 'We watched them die, innocent figures, lying prostrate and crushed on the green grass'

• Doctors attack 'total chaos' of rescue effort

It was the police who came in for most criticism. A gateman at the ground, who asked not be named, said: ``The police opened the big gates because they thought someone might get crushed.``It was a free-for-all. There were thousands coming in. I said to the police: `What are you doing that for?' and a policeman said, `Someone is going to die if we don't''. Opening those gates caused the tragedy.''

The gateman's account was supported by many spectators. Timothy Cook, a professor of surgery who was at the centre of the tragic scenes, said the seed of the disaster was police mishandling of the crowd outside the stadium in the minutes before the match.

He had also been appalled by a lack of co-ordination in efforts to rescue dying people from the melee after the disaster had occurred. Speaking from his parents' house in Liverpool, with his clothes still covered in vomit from the victims he tried to revive, Cook said he arrived at the Liverpool end of the ground at about 2.45. But for almost the entire 15 minutes before kick-off, the turnstiles were closed and nobody was getting through.

``There was a vast crush, because people were coming up behind but they wouldn't let anyone through. People were already getting hurt some were having to put children on their shoulders to protect them. It was an appalling situation. It got so bad that I saw a policeman helping fans to climb the wall into the ground to avoid the crush.

``The fans were demanding that the police open the main gate to let everyone through, and at about one minute to three it did open. I was about three feet away from it. It was not forced by anybody from outside; it was opened by a policeman, or a steward, from the inside. There was a line of policemen immediately inside the gate. ``I was absolutely furious, and spoke to one of them to say what a dangerous situation they had allowed to build up outside. The only person controlling the crowd outside had been one mounted policeman, who had been unable to do anything.''

Witnesses said the tragedy was not caused by violence. It came four days after Uefa, the European football authority, announced that, given government support and continued improvement of behaviour, English clubs could be allowed back into Europe after 1990. ``There was no fighting, just a crush too horrible to describe,'' said Peter McGuiness, 26, a Liverpool supporter from Prescott. ``Moments before the kick-off a steward opened the gates outside the ground to let us in, and as we rushed in people at the front were already beginning to climb the fence to get onto the pitch to escape the crush. If they hadn't got on to the pitch as quickly as they did there would have been even more people dead.''

Graham Mackrell, Sheffield Wednesday secretary, said: ``The disaster was caused by a surge. Forest were in the ground early, Liverpool were not. Anything else I have to say will be kept for the inquiry.'' The Sunday Times football reporter at the game, Rob Hughes, noted that the surge coincided with an incident in the game when a Liverpool player, Peter Beardsley, hit the bar with a shot at the other end of the ground.

Last night a consultant in respiratory medicine said most of the victims were likely to have died through asphyxiation. ``Even one person sitting on your chest can stop you breathing'', she said. ``With a lot of people crushing up against you, you simply can't breathe.'' Doctor Ronald Strachan, a Scottish GP with 20 years experience in dealing with off-shore emergencies, said that from what he had seen on television, the number one priority in life support to check breathing, and get air into the lungs of people who had stopped breathing had not been followed. ``Many of the casualties appeared to be taken out of the crowd to the field and just left lying there. They were not given immediate mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Many deaths may have occurred because of this. ``Police and first-aiders did not always seem to know this. If it is brought to the fore, it might save lives in future.''