The Keighley businessman whose two daughters were crushed to death at the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 Liverpool fans died has given harrowing evidence to an inquest into the tragedy, telling how he battled to save them on the pitch.

Sarah Hicks, 19, and her younger sister Victoria, 15, had been standing in the central pens behind the goal on the Leppings Lane terrace at the FA Cup semi-final match day in Sheffield after being separated from their father, Trevor.

Wearing a red "96" commemorative badge adorned on his suit, Mr Hicks told the Hillsborough inquest sitting in Warrington that he called out their names as he gave them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions whilst laying side-by-side.

He spoke of the heartbreaking moment he had "no choice" but to leave his elder daughter on the pitch as he carried Vicki into an ambulance, saying that he felt "dreadful".

HILLSBOROUGH INQUEST HEARS OF TEENAGE SISTERS' FINAL MOMENTS

Liverpool University student Sarah and her "football mad" sister Vicki had travelled to the ground on April 15 1989 with their parents Trevor and Jenni.

Trevor Hicks relived the moment he saw the "limp form" of his youngest daughter being passed over a fence onto the pitch after the surge.

As he made his way down from his position in the south-west terrace underneath the police box he found both of his daughters lying side-by-side.

He said: "I was going to do everything possible and everyone else seemed to be doing that. If they had a chance they were going to get it.

"I have always been taught that one of the last things that goes is the hearing so I was calling their names as well in the hope that you know they'd know we were there."

The inquest heard that Mr Hicks was orchestrating a "little squad" in supervising and encouraging others in the care of his girls.

"I was doing what I thought was best. I spent most of my time on Victoria but there was a group of us, it was a case of swapping around between the two girls, swapping who was doing mouth-to-mouth and who was doing the heart compressions."

He added that he had to clear Vicki's airways by sucking the vomit from her throat and had seen her chest rising as he did so.

The inquest was told that once an ambulance arrived on the pitch he carried Vicki "literally in our arms", assisted by another, before turning to get Sarah.

But another casualty was to be lifted into the ambulance yet he was assured more help was coming for Sarah and thus left in the ambulance.

Mr Hicks said of his daughters, "as far as I was concerned they hadn't gone".

"My concern was to get Sarah into the ambulance once Vicki was in it. I was then faced with the awful choice of leaving Sarah, who I was assured would be placed in the next ambulance which was apparently coming. It was chaos, basically everybody was looking after their casualty, or in my case, casualties."

On the way to the Northern General Hospital he and policeman Peter McGuinness continued CPR on Vicki and said he believed she had felt a faint pulse.

There he was to be told that his youngest daughter had passed away and his "immediate attention switched back to Sarah".

The inquest heard that he had split from the girls in order to get a programme and coffee but had "an excellent view" of the pen.

"I'd obviously been seeing what was going on for some time. I was calling up to the police officer to do something about it.

In a statement from 1989 following the disaster he said: "I saw the limp form of my youngest daughter being passed over the barrier."

He added that he had a "burning memory" of a young St John Ambulance boy of around 15 years of age: "The poor lad was in a worse state than me."

Anthony Garratty, who was a steward at the match, said he witnessed Vicki "moaning and groaning" on the pitch and added that he had been "100 per cent right that she was alive".

He told the inquest: "She was moving her head from side to side and she was coughing up what I would call crisps."