RUC man says IRA opened fire on Bloody Sunday

A former RUC man has told the Bloody Sunday Inquiry in Derry that some of the 13 civilians shot dead on January 30, 1972 died in a gun battle between the IRA and British soldiers.

Neil Falkingham, who was on duty in the Bogside on the day of the killings, said the first gunfire he heard on the day came from what sounded like a Thompson sub-machine gun, a weapon used by the IRA in the 1970s. He said he then heard high-velocity shots from British army weapons and, because the sounds of the two weapons overlapped, he concluded that IRA members and British soldiers were engaged in a gun fight.