Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness was today described standing "shocked and disbelieving" in Derry's Bogside in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday.
The Northern Ireland Education Minister, was seen with four other men "standing around trying to make sense of what had happened" after the Army shootings, according to Mr Brian McGee, giving evidence to the inquiry into the killings.
Mr McGee earlier described the panic which immediately followed the first fatality of that day 29 years ago and commented: "I remember naively thinking that it was only a matter of time before the IRA arrived but it did not happen."
Mr McGee also described seeing a lone gunman shoot from a pistol blindly round a corner "pretty wildly" towards Paratroopers in the moments after Jack Duddy, 17, was shot and killed.
The gunman is the same figure described by retired Bishop of Derry Dr Edward Daly, who was tending to the teenager.
Later that day, as he was returning home, Mr McGee said he saw Mr McGuinness and the others close to Free Derry Corner - further south of the main spheres of the killings on Bloody Sunday.
He said: "I can always remember his face; he was shocked, looking disbelieving. I do not know who the people were with him. They seemed to be standing around trying to make sense of what had happened."
Mr McGuinness has been alleged at the tribunal to have fired the first shot on Bloody Sunday, precipitating the lethal Army gunfire that day, according to an MI5 debriefing of an agent known as Infliction.
It has been claimed he was a high-ranking member of the Provisional IRA at the time, popularly believed to have been its Commander in the city - although that allegation was disputed at the inquiry earlier this week by journalist Eamon McCann.
The hearing was adjourned until Monday.
PA