London - The government is to set up a full public inquiry into the Marchioness riverboat disaster, it was confirmed yesterday.
Relatives of victims and those who survived the disaster on the Thames in central London, in which 51 people died in August 1989, confirmed that the new inquiry would be in public and presided over by a judge.
They were speaking after a meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr John Prescott, at the Department of Environment Transport and the Regions yesterday.