The brother of a West Bromwich Albion fan who died after collapsing at Hillsborough during Saturday’s Championship fixture against Sheffield Wednesday has demanded to know why paramedics took 15 minutes to arrive in the stands.
Mark Townsend, a 57-year-old season-ticket holder at West Brom, collapsed during the 3-2 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
Football fans who attended the weekend’s game have called for answers over why the match was not stopped when Mr Townsend suffered a medical episode, from which he later died.
West Brom paid tribute to Mr Townsend and the club, along with Sheffield Wednesday, have vowed to work together to investigate the circumstances around the incident after some fans criticised the decision not to halt the game.
Posting on X, formerly Twitter, the victim’s brother Steve said: “My heart is truly broken, my son had to watch my brother pass away and lose an uncle, and is left with those memories.
“I have had to break the news to my parents and his wife.
“My brother loved the Baggies, he was my best mate and going to a game will never be the same.”
The individual also claimed it took “15 minutes to attend to a dying man” in a subsequent post, with other supporters who witnessed the events questioning why more wasn’t done to help.
One West Brom fan who said he helped deliver first aid claimed that there was no space for immediate mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, though he did confirm that the individual received CPR. The supporter, who spoke to the BBC on condition of anonymity, also said that medical staff had difficulty in getting a stretcher down to the concourse because of the lack of space, and claimed the aisles of Hillsborough were not wide enough to carry stretchers.
Clubs to work with the EFL to establish what happened
The incident comes 35 years after the Hillsborough disaster when significant crowd management and stadium failures led to the biggest crush in English football history when 97 Liverpool fans lost their lives. The tragedy resulted in significant changes to safety regulations at football grounds across the country.
