A TEACHER yesterday described how she was wounded by a deranged gunman who massacred her colleague and 16 young children in a school gym class on March 13th last.
After spraying the first grade class with rapid fire from four handguns, Thomas Hamilton (43), a disgraced scoutmaster and suspected paedophile, killed himself with a bullet to the head.
He had owned six guns, all fully licensed by local police.
"I was very close to him. I was within a few feet. I was about to ask him what he wanted. I looked, and saw the gun and he started shooting at me," Ms Eileen Harild (43) told a public inquiry in Stirling into the Dunblane school shooting.
She said she suffered bullet wounds to the chest and arms.
"I was immediately aware of being shot," she said.
The inquiry is expected to focus on how an obviously unstable loner was able to secure police permits for an arsenal of handguns.
Immediately after the massacre, an inquiry headed by a senior Scottish judge, Lord Cullen, was set up into the massacre, which sent all of Britain into mourning.
Ms Harild, the first witness, was in the gymnasium when Hamilton came in. She described how she first saw him enter, wearing glasses and shooter's ear protectors.
"He had a woolly hat and a gun in his hand, extended," she said. "He immediately began to shoot at us. I was immediately aware of being shot. I put both my arms up to protect myself and he started to shoot indiscriminately and very quickly", Ms Harild said.
"I was in a lot of shock. I could not quite comprehend what was happening. I turned away from the man ... I stumbled to the open store area, baring my back to the man.
"During this time he turned his attention to the children in the bottom third of the gym. The shooting did not stop. It was continuous and very rapid. I am fairly certain it lasted between three and four minutes."
Det Chief Supt John Ogg, chief investigating officer of the massacre, said police arrived at the school at about 9.50 a.m. after being first alerted by a phone call at 9.41 a.m.
He said a man fitting Hamilton's description was seen that morning by a witness at about 9.28 a.m.
The man was in a white van at the Cawdor Road entrance to the school. Just two minutes later the van was seen at the Doune Road entrance where it turned into the school.
The witness, Ms Audrey McMillan, had said that the van was driving very slowly. It had parked beside a telegraph pole inside the school grounds.
He said Mrs McMillan had seen Hamilton emerge from his van. He appeared to be removing silver material from it.
It looked to her like a tool wrap with objects in it - she could see "lumps" in it - but could not see what these were. This happened around 9.30 a.m., the officer said.
He said the first shot was believed to have been fired at 9.37 a.m.
The inquiry is expected to last up to eight weeks and hear arguments for stricter school safety and tighter gun laws.
The shootings raised fresh questions about gun control in Britain.
The current law says local police may issue a gun licence to a person with a plausible reason to own one - target shooting, for example - after ascertaining the person is mentally sound and not prone to anger or rage.
Hamilton's gun permits were renewed periodically by local police despite complaints by parents about his treatment of children in "boys' clubs" he organised.