CHAPTER 5
THE AFTERMATH
Rescue Attempts
81. From 3 o'clock, gates 3 and 4 had been open and remained so. At first, fans had walked or staggered out winded and faint. But the final surge at 3.04 pm, and the struggle to reach the open gates, caused a horrendous blockage of bodies. The dead, the dying and the desperate became interwoven in the sump at the front of the pens, especially by the gates. Those with strength left clambered over others submerged in the human heap and tried to climb out over the fence. They were now helped by police and other fans who hauled them up and over. Numbers of fans were climbing over the radial fences into adjacent pens. At the back, many were hauled up into the west stand to relieve the pressure.
82. The steps from the sump at gateways 3 and 4 were so congested with bodies live and dead that each had to be prised from the pile by the police. Initially, no officer took effective charge. A number of individual officers and fans worked frantically to free those trapped but the gateways were so narrow that only two or three could get at the entwined bodies Willing hands got in one another's way. More officers arrived from the gymnasium and elsewhere in the ground. Many used their own initiative to help those laid out on the pitch, to assist in getting others over the fencing and to comfort the distressed. But some stood in groups near the perimeter fence not knowing what to do. They had been summoned in response to what was thought to be a threat to public order. What they found was a horrific scene of carnage and some young officers were shocked into impotence by what they saw.
83. It was truly gruesome. The victims were blue, cyanotic, incontinent; their mouths open, vomiting; their eyes staring. A pile of dead bodies lay and grew outside gate 3. Extending further and further on to the pitch, the injured were laid down and attempts made to revive them. More and more walking survivors flooded out on to the pitch as the players left. The scene was emotive and chaotic as well as gruesome. As the enormity of the disaster was realised, many of the fans milling about were bitter and hostile to the police, blaming them for what had happened. Officers were confronted, abused, spat upon and even assaulted. A small number of hysterical fans had to be subdued.
84. Adding to the chaos, a number of press photographers dodged about among rescue workers apparently avid to secure photographs at point blank range of those dying through the wire mesh and those laid on the pitch. Angry fans sought to assault them. Police had to intervene.
85. At about 3.12 pm, Chief Superintendent Nesbit, Commander of the Traffic Division, arrived on the pitch. He took charge at gate 3 and organised a chain of officers to simplify and expedite the extraction of casualties from the pen. In the absence of any mechanical means, police and fans together pulled and worked at the wire mesh with their bare hands and their feet to breach the fencing. They succeeded in both pens, enabling officers to get in and fans to be got out.
86. By now, some officers of their own initiative went round from the pitch to the tunnel where they met other officers from the turnstiles and the west stand. Together, they tried to persuade fans at the rear of the pens to go back through the tunnel. Some complied, but many resisted, wishing to stand their ground. Casualties were brought out through the tunnel, and as the pressure in the pens was relieved, officers were able to get further in and bring out more casualties, dead and alive. They were laid on the ground in the concourse outside the tunnel and attempts were made to revive them.
First Aid
87. The St John Ambulance Brigade had some 30 personnel posted round the ground for the match - 25 adults and 5 junior cadets, They were quickly on the scene when the first casualties emerged and sought to revive them. Their Divisional Superintendent, Mr Wells, tried unsuccessfully to help those pressed against the fencing by feeding oxygen to them through the mesh until they could be got out.
88. Dr Purcell, Sheffield Wednesday's doctor, came from his seat in the south stand and attempted resuscitation. Assisted by a male nurse from the crowd, he moved from patient to patient doing what he could, but in most cases it was too late.
89. At 3.13 pm a St John's ambulance came onto the pitch at the north-east corner and drove to the perimeter fence close to gate 3. There was no call for doctors and nurses on the public address system until nearly 3.30 pm. Nevertheless, as the minutes ticked past, some of them came onto the pitch to help of their
