Witness recalls 'men with rifles'

Fourteen civilians died after Bloody Sunday shootings

The journalist and author Nell McCafferty has told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry she saw two young men with rifles in the Bogside before the Army moved in.

She said the two gunmen were in a stairwell in flats at the bottom of Westland Street and were chastised by a group of women.

The inquiry is examining the events of 30 January 1972 when 13 civilians were shot dead by British paratroopers after a civil rights march in Londonderry. A 14th person died later.

Ms McCafferty said Martin McGuinness was called to the area by one of the women and that he looked anxious and startled when he arrived.

Inquiry

The Bloody Sunday Inquiry, chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate, was established in 1998 by Prime Minister Tony Blair after a campaign by families of those killed and injured.

They felt that the Widgery Inquiry, held shortly after the shootings, did not find out the truth about what happened on Bloody Sunday.

The new inquiry has been sitting in public in Derry's Guildhall for more than a year and is expected to run for another two years.

Witnesses to the inquiry are immune from prosecution on issues arising from their evidence.

It is aimed solely at establishing the facts of what happened.