Liverpool to pay homage to Hillsborough victims
Liverpool will come to a standstill today to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.
The bells of the city's two cathedrals and its civic buildings will ring out in memory of the 96 football fans who died at Sheffield Wednesday's stadium two decades ago.
Its public transport will come to a stop for two minutes at 3.06pm, exactly 20 years since the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest was abandoned.
Thousands of people will attend an emotional memorial service at Anfield's Kop when 96 candles will be lit and a representative of each family will be awarded the Freedom of Liverpool.
Liverpool's Lord Mayor, Steve Rotheram, said: "Hillsborough affected so many lives, not just on Merseyside but across the whole of the UK.
"I attended the match 20 years ago and the passing years do not diminish the importance and the poignancy of this occasion."
Sheffield will mark the anniversary of Britain's worst sporting disaster quietly.
After consultation with the Liverpool families' organisations, there will be no formal ceremony at Wednesday's ground.
The Leppings Lane end - where the disaster happened - will be opened, though, and there are three different memorials within a few hundred yards of the ground to provide a local focus.
In Nottingham there will be a two-minute silence in the city's Old Market Square beginning at 3.06pm.
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