British soldiers in Derry on Bloody Sunday lined up behind a low wall and fired live rounds in unison towards a crowd, a photographer told the Saville Inquiry today.
The claim was made by Irish Press photographer Mr Colman Doyle, who described seeing two distinct volleys directed towards a rubble barricade across Rossville Street, where up to six of the 13 killed that day were shot.
Giving evidence at the Guildhall in Derry, he said he could not believe what he had witnessed and thought the Paratroopers must be firing over the heads of the people ahead of them.
He also claimed he witnessed no petrol or nail bomb explosions and insisted the only shots he heard up to that point were rubber bullets.
However, when the first ambulance arrived at the scene, he claimed he heard three single rifle shots.
Mr Doyle said he saw about five soldiers between two low walls on Rossville Street, leaning against the one in front, in firing positions with their rifles pointed towards the barricade and Free Derry Corner further away.
They all fired together and Mr Doyle said he saw the cartridges coming out of the rifles and hitting the concrete beneath them.
He said: "As I looked towards the rubble barricade, there were about 20 or 30 people in the area, some dived for cover and some ran towards Rossville Street flats.
"I was amazed when they fired but I didn't think they would be firing at the crowds."
Questioned by Counsel to the Inquiry Mr Christopher Clarke QC, he said: "It didn't register with me that they were firing at people at the barricade."
Mr Doyle also described the arrival of the first Paras in the Bogside in military personnel carriers and said: "They started firing rubber bullets as they came out of the vehicles.
"I do not know if all the soldiers were firing rubber bullets but it was the biggest crescendo of baton rounds I had ever heard fired."
PA