British Prime Minister David Cameron made an official apology Wednesday for the police errors and subsequent cover-ups over the 1989 Hillsborough disaster that killed 96 supporters and injured hundreds more.
Fans were crushed to death in an overcrowded, fenced-in enclosure at the stadium in Sheffield, where Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semifinal.
Cameron spoke as an independent report was released that found police had sought to shift the blame for the tragedy to the Liverpool fans themselves while covering up their own failures that exacerbated it.
"With the weight of the new evidence of this report, it is right for me today as prime minister to make a proper apology to the families of the 96 for all they have suffered over the last 23 years," Cameron said in televised remarks.
"It was wrong that the families have had to wait for so long - and fight so hard - just to get to the truth," he said. "And it was wrong that the police changed the records of what happened and tried to blame the fans."
"On behalf of the government, and indeed our country, I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long."
Liverpool residents were to observe two minutes of silence in tribute to the memory of the Hillsborough victims on Wednesday at 15:06 GMT, the time when the game was stopped 23 years ago.
