A witness yesterday said she saw a pistol shot fired from a window of Rossville Flats on Bloody Sunday, after soldiers had opened fire in the car park down below.
The description given by Mrs Monica Barr was the first eyewitness evidence heard by the inquiry about such an incident, although other witnesses have testified to the presence of civilian gunmen at other locations.
Mrs Barr said she was watching from a window at the back of her flat in Chamberlain Street when soldiers entered the car park in an armoured vehicle and she heard the first shot, a "loud, powerful crack", which she assumed had been fired by a soldier.
She remembered hearing other shots and being terrified. She then saw a hand stick out of an open window on the top floor of Block 1 of Rossville Flats. The hand was holding what appeared to be a pistol and one shot was fired which "had a 'pop' sound and was certainly different from the other shots I had heard earlier," she said.
Almost immediately afterwards she heard a 'crack' and saw the top of the window frame splinter, and she presumed that a bullet had been fired by a soldier below the flats. At around the same time the hand disappeared.
Replying to Mr Barry MacDonald QC, for a number of victims' families, the witness agreed that it would appear to be very difficult to reach over the top of the tilting window in the flats, as she had described the person firing the pistol doing.
Mr MacDonald remarked that none of the soldiers who were there that day appeared to have seen or heard any shot being fired from Block 1 of the flats on the car park side, and no other civilians appeared to have seen that either.
Another witness, Mr Michael Lynch, described seeing a civilian gunman wearing a parka jacket and hood emerge from an alleyway off Rossville Street and fire two shots from a handgun around a corner towards soldiers.
Mr Lynch, who said he was watching from a window on the top floor of Rossville Flats, added that he did not think the gunman had time to aim at anyone, and after firing the shots he ran away in the direction from which he had come.
Mr Edwin Glasgow QC, for a number of soldiers, said 'Soldier G', who has since died, had told the tribunal he saw a gunman disappear into the same alley.