A soldier today told the Saville Inquiry of how he and colleagues were fired upon when they spotted four men in combat gear loading up a green Ford Cortina from a shop on Bloody Sunday.
Soldier 165, a bombardier in the Light Air Defence Regiment said he and colleagues were standing on the City Walls looking down at the Bogside when the shot rang out.
"The men were loading up the car from the back of a shop in the Brandywell area just along from Rossville Street," he recalled.
He added: "I think the shot probably came from someone who was looking out for the men who were loading up the car. It was a high powered shot like a rifle shot, not a pistol shot."
Mr Edwin Glasgow QC compared his evidence to a statement given to the inquiry by former IRA man Mr Paddy Ward, who claimed Mr Martin McGuinness supplied detonators for nail bombs given to eight members of the Fianna, the youth wing of the IRA on the day of Bloody Sunday.
Mr Ward, who is due to give evidence in London, said the bombs were intended for an attack on the Guildhall, which was aborted before the civil rights march took place.
In his statement to the inquiry he said: "The manufactured nail bombs were put into the back of a hijacked green Cortina which was in the next-door garage."
But Mr Arthur Harvey QC, representing some of the families, pointed out that Soldier 165 made no mention of IRA activity in the Bogside before the march when he gave a statement to the Royal Military Police after Bloody Sunday.
"There is no mention of the men; there is no mention of suspicious activity and there is not mention of it immediately being followed by a shot from the Brandywell," he added.
PA