Yesterday marked the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster when 96 football fans including four supporters from Warrington lost their lives.

This is how the tragedy unfolded:

April 15 1989: Hillsborough

12pm - Fans begin to gather around the bridge close to the Leppings Lane entrance. All of the ground’s turnstiles are open.

2pm - The stadium is starting to fill up.

2.15pm - Central pens at the Leppings Lane terrace are filling while the side areas remain relatively empty. PA announcement asks fans in pens three and four to step forward.

2.17pm - Officer outside becomes anxious about the number of people and radios to stop traffic on Leppings Lane. This is done at 2.30pm.

2.44pm - Crowd inside and outside turnstile approach has reached 5,000. Police officer outside calls for backup.

2.46pm – Police Land Rover arrives. Officer using loudspeaker urges crowd not to push. Officer radios suggestion to postpone kick-off, which is rejected.

2.47pm – Senior officer outside radios request to open metal barrier, Gate C, to allow fans in as he fears fatalities.

2.52pm - Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, who can see the full pens in the police control room, orders exit Gate C to open. In five minutes 2000 fans pass through, the majority into the central pens.

2.57pm - Gate C is closed.

2.59pm - South Yorkshire Police Headquarters ask if ambulances are required. They are told there are no reports of injuries but to stand by. Fans begin to spill on to the pitch.

3.00pm - The match kicks off with more than 2,000 Liverpool supporters still outside the ground. As the fans surge in, those already inside are forced forwards and crushed against the high, wire-topped safety fences.

3.06pm – Police officer notices fans being hoisted to safety and runs onto the pitch and orders the referee to stop the game. Chief Superintendent Duckenfield asks for Operation Support, a call for all available police resources to come to the ground.

3.07pm - Superintendent Bernard Murray in the Police Control room makes a request for a fleet of ambulances. In all 42 sent.

3.10pm - Request made from Leppings Lane perimeter fence for bolt cutters.

3.12pm - Chief Superintendent John Nesbit arrives and takes charge at one of the front exit gates to the Leppings Lane end and organises a chain of officers to help get casualties out. Fans exit through a gate in the fence.

3.13pm – Forty-two ambulances begin to arrive, but they are told fans are fighting and only one makes it onto the pitch. There is no call for doctors or nurses on the PA until 3.30pm.

3.15pm - Chief Superintendent Duckenfield tells Graham Kelly, FA chief executive, that there have been fatalities, a gate has been forced and Liverpool fans rushed in. He points to a television screen covering Gate C and says: “That’s the gate that’s been forced. There’s been an inrush.”

3.22pm - Fire engines with cutting equipment arrive. Police who have not been informed say they are not needed.

3.27pm - Fans who escaped the crush begin using advertising hoardings as stretchers to ferry the injured away to safety.

3.56pm - Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish appeals for calm on the stadium announcer's microphone after the PA system fails. He asks fans to assist the police and those giving first aid.

4.01pm - The match is officially abandoned. Ninety-four fans died at the ground. Two more died later in hospital.