RUC officers yesterday told how they found people on fire in the street immediately after the Omagh bombing, and how a clothing shop had to be used to lay out the overflow of bodies.
Constable George Elliott said that when he arrived at Market Street, where the bomb exploded, "I stopped for a second when I saw the scene in front of me. I had to think where to start."
Constable Elliott was on duty in a police car in Fintona, about eight miles away, when he heard on the police radio at about 2.30 p.m. of a bomb warning at the courthouse in Omagh.
He said that shortly afterwards, as he knew his wife was going into Omagh to get school uniforms for the children, he spoke to her and told her not to go in. He then heard messages indicating that the street near the courthouse had been cleared. At around 3 p.m. he heard a lot of commotion on the police radio and the word "casualties" was used. He drove to Omagh as fast as possible and went to Market Street, where he found numerous dead and wounded. He began to help the wounded. He saw a man with a video camera filming close up to the injured. "I had to push him out of the way to help an injured person," he said.
He told how bodies of the dead were wrapped in sheets and laid out initially in Market Arcade, a small entry off the street. This became full and a nearby clothes shop was then used.
Constable Andrew Moore, of Omagh RUC station, told how he was detailed to check houses after the bomb warning. He was walking down High Street when the bomb exploded. Running to the scene he saw numerous casualties, including an elderly lady who was calling for help as she lay in a shop window surrounded by broken glass.
He saw a car engine block burning in the street. Two young boys, aged between eight and 12 years, lay nearby. One was beside the engine block and was still on fire, the other seemed to be still alive and he moved him to the pavement.
Constable Mark Benson told of how he had come across a young boy lying on the ground "unconscious and gasping for breath". Asked to identify the boy he said he believed it was James Victor Barker (12) from Buncrana, Co Donegal. The inquest heard he had not died at the scene but later in hospital. Constable Benson said that before the explosion it had been "totally clear in my mind that the bomb was in the courthouse" and not where it had actually been on Market Street. Although a recognised code word had been given, making it "sink in", he said all warnings were "treated as the real thing, it's up to the bomb disposal officers to declare otherwise".
Constable Geoffrey Eakin described being met by scenes of panic on arrival. A young boy lay face up with his eyes open but was dead. he said. He believed the boy to be either Oran Doherty (8), from Buncrana, or Fernando Blasco Baselga (12), from Madrid.
Constable Eakin said he used a fire extinguisher to put out fires in the area, including many on the injured. When asked by Mr Leckey how many people he had attended to in this way he said "possibly six, eight, maybe 10".