FURTHER evidence that British soldiers other than the Parachute Regiment fired from Derry's walls on Bloody Sunday was broadcast by Channel 4 News last night.
The programme quoted a soldier of the Royal Anglian Regiment as saying he heard a sniper from his platoon shout: "Bloody Hell! I got two with three rounds."
The evidence emerged as the British government was urged to hold an independent inquiry into the Bloody Sunday killings in a cross party House of Commons motion sponsored by the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, and former Shadow Secretary for Northern Ireland, Mr Kevin McNamara.
The motion, which will be officially tabled today, the 25th anniversary of Bloody Sunday when 13 people were killed by British soldiers during a civil rights march, has the support of more than 60 MPs.
The Tanaiste Mr Spring, said last night it was incumbent on the British government to examine all the new information, which he described as "very significant and very serious". The Taoiseach, Mr Bruton, has already confirmed he intends to call on the British government to investigate the recent allegations about the killings.
But the Northern Ireland Office, in a statement last night, said: "The events of January 1972 were fully investigated by the Widgery Tribunal. There are no plans to set up a further inquiry. Anyone with new evidence should report it to the RUC."
Channel 4 said that the soldier quoted by it - who would not be identified or filmed - stated that he was with a 14 man platoon of his regiment stationed on the walls as observers on January 30th, 1972.
The shout that he heard came from a colleague who was positioned as a sniper in a derelict house within yards of the walls. The soldier also told Channel 4 that it was possible the Royal Anglians opened fire without first being fired upon.
A week ago, the programme described forensic and other evidence which indicated that up to three of the civilians shot dead on Bloody Sunday were probably killed by bullets fired from the walls.
In Derry today, a study by Prof Dermot Walsh, Professor of Law at the University of Limerick, will be published which claims to show fundamental discrepancies between statements made by the paratroopers hours after the killings and their sworn statements later to the Widgery Tribunal.
Prof Walsh was commissioned by the Bloody Sunday Trust to compare the two sets of statements.
His written report concludes: "The nature and extent of these discrepancies are such that, they not only render the soldiers evidence unreliable, but they also give grounds for charges of murder or attempted murder against some of the soldiers concerned."
Most of the soldiers changed their statements in such a way as to present their actions on Bloody Sunday in a better light. They changed details of where they had fired, how many rounds they had fired, the descriptions of people they had fired at and their actions, and of the threat they had faced when they had opened fire.
The Commons motion tabled by Mr Hume highlights the memo from the then British prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, to the then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Widgery - who headed the tribunal into the killings - in which he stated "it had to be remembered that we were in Northern Ireland fighting not only a military war but a propaganda war".
The motion also cites the new evidence relating to the actions of British soldiers on Derry's walls and recordings by a radio ham of messages from the British army, which Lord Widgery refused to hear because he claimed they were illegally obtained.
"There is now an overwhelming case for the circumstances surrounding the whole tragedy of Bloody Sunday to be re examined," said Mr Hume.
To date the British government has refused to comment upon the demands for a new inquiry.