A SOMBRE mood gripped Sheffield yesterday as events were held around the city to mark the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.
The main civic event saw officials gather for a short service in Hillsborough Walled Garden before marching quietly to the small marble memorial stone to lay flowers alongside bouquets already placed by Liverpool fans.
South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Med Hughes saluted the memorial, paid for by surrounding businesses and the first to be erected after the disaster.
At the football ground a few hundred yards away, open for supporters to pay their respects yesterday, Liverpool fans left tributes to the dead.
Some were then heading over the Pennines to attend commemorative events at Anfield.
Among them was Michael Murphy, of Formby, who was 26 at the time of the disaster and counts himself lucky to survive.
Now 46, he drove to Hillsborough with two of his three children – Hannah, 15, and Daniel, 10 – to lay a bouquet of tulips at the Leppings Lane End before returning home to go to Anfield.
