'Army vehicle tried to hit teenager twice'

An Army vehicle which struck a teenager on Bloody Sunday tried to ram her a second time, the inquiry into the shootings heard today.

Witness Frank Campbell also told the tribunal that troops were driving deliberately towards civilians when they came into Derry’s Bogside on January 30, 1972.

"I was amazed how under the rule of law people could do this sort of thing," Mr Campbell said from the witness box in Derry’s Guildhall.

"If one of the Saracens (armoured personel carrier) hit you then you would be dead. To me that isn’t justice."

Thirteen men and youths were shot dead when Paratroopers opened fire in the Bogside in the wake of a civil rights demonstration on Bloody Sunday.

Mr Campbell, who was a youth worker at the time of Bloody Sunday, said he then saw Alana Burke knocked down deliberately by one of the vehicles in the car park of the Rossville Flats.

Ms Burke, who was then 16 years old, survived the incident and testified to the inquiry earlier this year. Mr Campbell said: "She was hit first and then the Saracen drove at her again and that is when I caught her and ran with her behind the wall."

Mr Campbell was the 224th witness to give evidence to the inquiry which has been sitting in public since March last year.

He claimed that after the shootings people who carried black flags outside the Bogside - then a no-go area for security forces - were arrested.

"It was as if you were not allowed to show any sympathy. Afterwards people were stunned and angry. It takes a lot for me to get angry but I was very angry."

The Inquiry is chaired by Lord Saville of Newdigate and is expected to run for another two years.