Gate C opened at 2:52 PM
After being ignored twice, police outside finally got Duckenfield to open Gate C at 2:52 PM, releasing a mass of people directly into the stadium foyer.
Where this was said
The Build-Up to the Crush: Gate C Opens
At 5:55 · chapter starts 5:10
By 2:50 PM, the situation on Leppings Lane had become desperate. With kickoff minutes away, 5,000 people were still trying to pass through 7 turnstiles — a physical impossibility. Police outside the stadium contacted match commander Duckenfield urgently, asking permission to open Gate C and bypass the turnstiles. He ignored the first call, ignored the second, and only relented on the third, near-frantic request, ordering Gate C opened at 2:52 PM. The pressure outside instantly transferred inside: a mass of people flooded through the gate and across the stadium foyer, heading straight down the central tunnel toward Pens 3 and 4 — already dangerously overcrowded. The cops on the ground were providing no directional guidance. The collision was seconds away.
5,000 fans still outside at 10 till 3
With just 10 minutes to kickoff, approximately 5,000 Liverpool fans were still outside on Leppings Lane trying to get through the 7 turnstiles.
1,000 over capacity per pen
Pens 3 and 4 at Hillsborough were already approximately 1,000 people over their safe capacity before the Gate C crowd even entered the tunnel.
The Anatomy of a Crowd Crush: What Killed 97 People
By 2:55 PM the crowd in the central pens had shifted from excited to desperate. A crush barrier in Pen 3 — old and overstrained — gave way, triggering a human cascade. Packed so tightly they couldn't expand their chests, people died of asphyxiation. The game kicked off on time at 3 PM, oblivious.
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