Soldier's shots 'like hailstones'

13 people died in Bloody Sunday shootings

A witness has told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry that the firing of British Army shots in Londonderry was "like hailstones hitting the road".

James McMenamin said he encountered the firing - in which British paratroops shot 13 men dead after a civil rights march - on the afternoon of 30 January 1972.

He said he was south of the main shootings in the Bogside area of the city.

Mr McMenamin told the tribunal he was walking towards Free Derry Corner with two friends when "bullets struck the road beside us, fired from Derry's walls".

Man felled by shot

As the party ran for the cover of a low wall, the shooting intensified and "sounded like hailstones hitting the road".

"The shooting continued after we had dived for cover behind the low wall," he added.

Mr McMenamin earlier recalled seeing a man shot from behind as he ran across the car park of the Rossville Flats.

He said he believed the man had been shot in the back of the head as he ran into a gap between two blocks of the flats, because he saw his head "jerk forward as his body fell forwards".

However, he later accepted that it could have been Patrick McDaid, who was grazed in the back diving for cover.

Soldier 'fired from hip'

Earlier on Monday, the inquiry heard that a paratrooper fired a rifle "indiscriminately" from the hip into an area where at least three people were shot.

Witness Danny Deehan told the inquiry of his "shock anger and disbelief" at the scene which unfolded in the car park of the Rossville Flats.

One man, Jack Duddy, was killed and at least two - Michael Bradley and Michael Bridge - were wounded in the car park of the flats.

Mr Deehan, who was 16 on Bloody Sunday, knew Mr Duddy, 17, and another two of those who died, Kevin McElhinney, 17, and Hugh Gilmour, 17.

'Indiscriminate'

Giving evidence in the Guildhall, Derry, he said he vividly remembered one of the soldiers, who was with others beside a Saracen army vehicle on the periphery of the car park.

"He had his rifle at his hip and seemed to be firing indiscriminately," Mr Deehan said.

"I think I was feeling shock, anger and disbelief. I never saw any civilian with a weapon and there was no shooting coming from the flats. I could not see anything being thrown from the flats."

He added: "I could hear large loud sharp cracks. I think there were 40 or 50 shots over a very short period of time. Everything happened very quickly. There was firing from more than one weapon."

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 to conduct a fresh examination of evidence relating to the shootings.

It has been sitting in public for a year and is expected to run for another two.