Former Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish spoke about the 'mayhem' at Hillsborough as he gave evidence at the disaster inquest.
The team's manager on the day of the tragedy was speaking from the witness box in the final afternoon session at Warrington Coroner's Court before the hearings adjourn for the Christmas break.
"The place was mayhem, nobody knew what's going on, there's stories coming from every angle," Dalglish said.
Dalglish was questioned by Christina Lambert QC on behalf of the coroner, Lord Justice Goldring.
Wearing a red Liverpool tie and a '96' lapel badge, Dalglish told how the news started to filter through that something serious was happening.
"We knew there'd been fatalities. We weren't told what the cause was, but we knew it wasn't people fighting or hooliganism,' he said.
Dalglish spoke about the request to call for calm and told how he used a microphone in the DJ box as the one in the police box didn't work.
He remembered the crowd applauded and added, "so obviously they heard the message. I came out of the room and went back to the dressing room area."
He said the only time he remembers going on to the pitch was to check his son was OK. "Fortunately he was," he said.
John Beggs QC, representing the retired Hillsborough match commanders, read out a passage from Dalglish's autobiography where he discusses Reds fans 'bunking in' to Wembley for the FA Cup final against Everton in 1986.
Dalglish, when Beggs quoted a Home Office report about the same match and described ticketless fans trying to enter the stadium as 'troubling', said: 'I'm just a normal human being. Not judge and jury on how people should behave.'
The court was shown an extract of Mr Dalglish's autobiography about Heysel, in which he wrote: "How on earth could Uefa think they could separate the passionate followers of Liverpool and Juventus with a thin piece of chicken wire? Chicken wire!"
Beggs asked if followers can be passionate without fighting, to which Dalglish replied "yes".
The counsel for Ch Supt David Duckenfield followed up by asking if Dalglish was acknowledging that a group of Liverpool supporters were prone to violence. "No," replied Dalglish. "I'm identifying that chicken wire wasn't substantive enough to separate two groups of fans."
Rajiv Menon, counsel for 10 of the families, asked about press coverage after the disaster.
"It was upsetting for many people," said Dalglish, particularly the Sun front page headline 'The Truth'.
"I know there was outrage," said Dalglish. "I know the fans were very upset. And, in fact, I was asked to attend, if I could go to Walton prison to calm the prisoners down on the Friday because of the stuff that had been written in the newspapers."
Before he was discharged Dalglish was questioned by Peter Weatherby on behalf of 22 of the families. He was asked about his views of delaying the kick-off.
"It wasn't an uncommon occurrence," said Dalglish. "If it was necessary, both teams would be in complete agreement with the police and referee, as I said earlier.
"The third person that would be asked is the team manager, but it's a fait acomplit by the time it gets to us."
Dalglish finished his evidence at 3pm and the coroner adjourned the inquest until the new year.
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