LIVERPOOL, England (AP)

Liverpool players past and present wept yesterday alongside survivors marking the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough stadium disaster that changed the face of English football.

Church bells tolled as the names of the 96 Liverpool fans who died in the crush at the 1989 FA Cup semi-final were read out in front of about 28,000 fans attending the annual memorial service at Anfield.

A two-minute silence was held across the city at 3:06 p.m. (1406 GMT), the time when Liverpool's match with Nottingham Forest at Sheffield Wednesday's ground was abandoned after a fatal crush in one of the stands.

Crowding outside

"(Hillsborough) broke the heart but not the spirit of our community," the Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, said inside Anfield.

"For many here today it seems still like yesterday. Those we lost are always in our minds."

Twenty years ago, police opened a gate to alleviate crowding outside the Hillsborough ground, allowing fans to surge into an area already packed with standing fans. The influx crushed 94 fans to death inside the Sheffield stadium while two more died later.

In the days after the country's worst sporting disaster, Anfield became a shrine for grieving fans to lay flowers, scarves and flags on the pitch. It is a scene that has played out inside the ground every year since, and yesterday was no different.

Outpouring of grief

Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez and his players sat with fans in the 72 steeply raked rows of the Kop, which was rebuilt into an all-seater stand when the club implemented the post-Hillsborough reforms. They were joined by Everton manager David Moyes as the northwest port city of Liverpool united in a renewed outpouring of grief.

After the club's stirring anthem You'll Never Walk Alone was sung by a choir, Kenny Dalglish, who was manager on April 15, 1989, gave the first reading at the service.