British army paratroopers were firing carelessly from the hip on Derry's Rossville Street on Bloody Sunday, the Saville Inquiry heard today.
Witness Mr Brendan Harley described a soldier opening fire as if on a pigeon shoot, while another, Mrs Patricia Canning, recalled seeing more than one firing from waist level.
It was the second day in recent weeks the hearings in Derry's Guildhall has been given accounts of soldiers firing their rifles from waist or hip level on Rossville Street.
Six of the 13 men and youths shot dead on Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972, were hit on Rossville Street, the main road into the city's Bogside, either on or beside the makeshift rubble barricade straddling the road.
Mr Harley, who was 14 at the time, said: "At least one soldier was firing as if he was on a pigeon shoot. He was shooting from the hip southwards down Rossville Street without aiming properly."
Soldiers from 1st Battalion the Parachute Regiment are known to have entered Derry's Bogside that day armed with self-loading rifles.
However, Mr Harley said that during the course of the afternoon "I am certain that I heard shots of a repetitive nature and which I would describe as automatic gunfire."
Mrs Canning, who was watching events from a flat overlooking Rossville Street, described soldiers lining up behind a low wall jutting out from Kells Walk onto the street - a scene already described to the inquiry and captured on a photograph.
She said she saw one trooper holding his weapon at shoulder level, looking through the sight and firing repeatedly.But she added: "It appeared to me that other soldiers were firing from waist level.
Mrs Canning later described seeing three young men lying on the barricade, almost certainly Michael McDaid (20)John Young (17) and William Nash (19).
Later she saw the troops draw up beside the barricade in an armoured car and "picking the bodies up like sacks" by the arms and legs and throwing them into the back of the vehicle - a description similar to other witness accounts.
Also speaking at the enquiry today, Ms Kathleen Crossan told how she saw one of the Bloody Sunday victims shot dead as he went to the aid of another man.
Ms Crossan told the Saville Inquiry about the killing of Barney McGuigan (41) whose body was famously photographed lying face up in a large pool of blood.
Other witnesses claim Mr McGuigan was going to the aid of the dying Patrick Doherty (31) who was said to have been lying nearby calling out that he did not want to be left alone.
PA