British troops in Derry were hostile and "very hyped up" hours before the killing of 13 innocent civilians, a witness told the Saville Inquiry on Bloody Sunday today.
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He said the streets were thick with soldiers and he had a foreboding that "something terrible" was going to happen later. He branded the shootings as "a slaughter of innocents".
Mr Pat Moyne told the inquiry in the city’s Guildhall that he was arrested by paratroopers while going for a walk with a friend after attending Mass on the Sunday morning. He said he was pushed up against a wall by two paras with rifles and body-searched.
Mr Moyne, who was 23 in 1972, said: "The soldiers were very hostile and appeared very hyped up; it was not a normal peace-keeping force".
He said he was pushed into the back of a Saracen vehicle, hit on the back of the neck with a rifle butt and driven to the yard of police station. He said soldiers were hitting the outside of the Saracen and shouting "Provo bastards", "killers" and "murderers".
As they were taken into the station there about 100 paratroopers in the back yard. "They had blackened faces. They looked like they were dressed for night manoeuvres and were dressed for action".
After returning home after his release some time later, Mr Moyne decided to go and see what was happening on the march. He said he heard shooting and saw people running around in confusion.
He went towards Glenfada Park and saw Mr Jim Wray, who lived just down the street from him. People started running and suddenly Mr Wray "froze" and fell to the ground after five or six shots were fired. He was one of the dead that day.