MERSEYSIDE will fall silent for a minute to mark the 26th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster today.

A minute’s silence will be observed across Liverpool and Wirral at 3.06pm – the exact time the FA Cup semi-final was abandoned as the tragedy unfolded on April 15, 1989.

Public transport has been encouraged to come to a halt for one minute as a mark of respect for the 96 Liverpool fans who died – 12 of whom were from Wirral and Ellesmere Port.

Flags on council buildings will be flown at half-mast.

The Mersey Ferry will sound its horn and the barriers will be lowered at the Mersey tunnels for a minute.

Hundreds gathered at Wallasey Town Hall to mark the 25th anniversary of the disaster last year.

On steps overlooking the River Mersey and Anfield, they bowed their heads in silent tribute as a bell tolled 96 times to remember each of those who lost their lives in the tragedy.

More than a year has passed since the new inquests into the Hillsborough disaster began at Warrington.

The hearings into the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans started in a specially converted courthouse in Birchwood Park on March 31, 2014.

The proceedings were called for after the original accidental death verdicts were quashed by the High Court in December 2012. Families of the 96 involved in the tragedy were given the chance to speak about their loved ones with emotional pen portraits.

Brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, aunties and uncles all paid tribute to those fans that never made it home.

Former chief superintendent David Duckenfield, the match commander at the game, told the hearings it was “one of the biggest regrets of my life” that he did not think of the consequences of allowing thousands of fans in to the ground.