There was an enormous silence on Tuesday after day broke on the place where all hell had let loose.
The preservation of the crime scene had delayed the post-parade clean-up, so the beer cans, the wine bottles, the red confetti and the cheap little ‘Champions’ flags still littered the streets around the place where a vehicle was driven into Liverpool fans. Reminders of the joy that came before the horror.
The desolation was more understated, yet no less vivid, out under leaden skies on Queens Drive, a few miles from the centre of town — always part of the open-top-bus parade route, where generations of people have hung out flags, posters and bunting and shinned up lampposts over the years.