Puff Daddy 'feared for life'

Mr Combs says he thought he was being shot at

By Jane Hughes in New York

The multi-millionaire rap musician Puff Daddy has told a court in Manhattan he feared for his life when a series of shots were fired at a night club where he was partying.

He said he had nothing to do with the gun fire.

Sean Combs - as he is more formally known - is accused of being involved in a shoot-out at Club New York in December 1999, and of offering his driver $50,000 to say the weapon was his.

Jennifer Lopez was with the rap star at the time of the incident

He faces up to 15 years behind bars if he is convicted.

If Puff Dadday was nervous about giving evidence he showed no sign of it.

He told the court he went to the club with his then girlfriend, the singer and film star Jennifer Lopez, to celebrate before leaving for a Caribbean cruise.

'Shocked'

Dressed in a dark blue suit, white shirt and turquoise tie, the 32-year-old musician spoke softly as he sat in the witness box and vowed he was "telling the truth".

"Were you ever in possession of a weapon that night or early that morning" he was asked by his lawyer Benjamin Brafman.

"No I did not" Mr Combs replied.

"Did you have a weapon at any point during that evening inside Club New York," he was asked.

"No I did not Sir," he said.

'Hands up'

"Did you ever fire a weapon into the ceiling or anywhere else that night" asked Mr Brafman.

"No," replied the rapper.

He said when shooting broke out he was completely shocked and assumed someone was directing it at him.

"Do you know who was being shot at?" asked his lawyer.

"No. I thought I was being shot at," Combs said. "My hands were up. I started to go down. Everybody started falling all over each other."

He added: "I had felt the shots were for me. As fast as I could get down there, I was just trying to get away from danger."

The jury is expected to begin deliberating in the next few days.