Hillsborough report: Your reaction

David Cameron has apologised for the "double injustice" of the Hillsborough football disaster, after the release of an independent report into previously unseen documents about the tragedy.

The prime minister said police had failed to do enough and had also tried to blame Liverpool fans. Ninety-six fans died after a crush at the Sheffield ground in 1989.

Kelvin MacKenzie, Sun editor when the paper ran a story blaming fans, offered "profuse apologies" for his headline.

Here, readers who witnessed the tragedy and its aftermath, react to the report and the apologies.

Ian Meyer, 50, Wallasey, Merseyside

As someone who was in the Leppings Lane end at Hillsborough on that fateful day, today has stirred up a lot of memories and emotion.

It brings back all the sadness of that awful day.

I think today's developments and apologies have been sensitively handled.

It has been a long, hard slog leading up to today. I just now feel that the real truth is coming out.

The real sense of how unfair and wrong it all was, is now out there.

All I can pray for is that the families can get some sort of closure, and that they can move on in some way.

Even though I lost track of my friends on the day and saw the terrible crush on that terrace, none of my friends died that day. But I know so many others who were affected. Everyone in Liverpool does.

It had a devastating effect on Liverpool. It felt like the whole city was crying for weeks afterwards. I, for one, was, and reading the death columns in the Liverpool Echo each day was absolutely terrible and gut-wrenching. I will never forget that feeling.

It is a feeling that has remained with us since.

As for what happens now, my heart says that there should be prosecutions - but I just hope that if this is not the end, it is the beginning of the end.

The truth is finally out there and hopefully we can now all move on.

Keith Chew, 41, Widnes, Cheshire

I was just 17 when I was at Hillsborough. I am 41 now and this is probably the most difficult day since.

It feels different to any of the previous anniversaries. I have listened to the prime minister's apology and the press conference discussing the report and have spoken to my friends who were there with me on the day.

We are all saying the same thing - that it has been done very well today, but while it is all positive at the moment, this can't be the end. A lot more needs to be done.

There needs to be accountability. It is not about retribution, but responsibility. People need to put their hand up and admit their mistakes.

I'm referring in particular to the higher ranking police officers of the South Yorkshire Police and sections of the media, including the Sun.

There are some things I saw that day that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

I came face to face with death for the first time in my life. I held people who had succumbed to the crush. I carried people out of the ground who I hoped, although I think I knew in vain, would survive, and I live every day with the images of that day.

It isn't something that I have spoken about in great detail over the years. I have never been at the forefront of the fight for the truth. Maybe that's just part of my coping mechanism.

Now, for the first time in 23 years, I truly feel that people will find out the truth and that the people who came home that day, together with the families of those who didn't, may finally be able to start the process of having a little peace in their lives.

The Reverend Ian Hamilton, 59, Manchester

I am Methodist minister who was working in Sheffield that day.

I was on the first bus to take people to the gym in Hillsborough where many of the victims were brought, and was beside members of families as they began the dreadful duty of identifying their loved ones who had died that day.

What struck me, amid all the emotions of that day, was the behaviour of the press, who were being totally unprofessional.

Especially in my work later in the week in the coroner's building, as we stood beside families to formally identify those victims of this tragedy, and as we counselled them in their grief, I was disconcerted by some of the press, who were trying to buy pictures of the victims over our shoulders as we talked with families.

The fear of families that there would be a huge cover-up, and lurid headlines from newspapers was borne out.

Today's apologies are the kind of formal apologies you would expect, particularly from the likes of Kelvin MacKenzie.

But you have to ask where people were getting their information from and I am convinced Kelvin MacKenzie has questions to answer on this.

For the sake of those who grieve, because of the death of their loved ones, there has to be proper accountability now.

If it's painful for me, I'm also aware of the immense pain of the families of the victims. They have not been allowed to grieve, because of everything that came after Hillsborough.

But this will always be with them, as it will many members of the police who were unable to deal with what they saw on the day.

Today will begin some process of closure, but there will be more information to emerge that has not been put before the public or the [Hillsborough Independent] panel before now.

Interviews by Stephen Fottrell.