Papers released on Hillsborough tragedy

LONDON - British police and medics whose failures contributed to the deaths of 96 football fans in the country’s worst sports disaster unfairly blamed the dead for the 1989 tragedy and sought to cover up their actions, newly disclosed documents revealed Wednesday.

The documents vindicated efforts by the victims’ families, who had spent 23 years demanding a full accounting of the events at Hillsborough Stadium that killed fans of Liverpool. Most of the victims were crushed and suffocated in a standing-only section after they were herded there by police.

Prime Minister David Cameron issued a full apology Wednesday for the wrongdoing of authorities and the subsequent cover-up, saying that Britain had been shamed for more than 20 years by its reluctance to expose the errors that led to the deaths. Lawmakers in the House of Commons gasped and wept as he spoke.

AP