When they were on their fourth lap of a running track outside an Omagh sports centre, a ladies’ football team heard what they thought were fireworks.
“We were joking and laughing, saying: Had someone forgotten what month it was,” says one of the players.
“Then we saw the children running and could hear screaming… someone was lying at the bottom of the track. We were running towards him.”
As Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell lay injured after being shot as he put footballs into the boot of the car beside his young son, a yoga class and kids’ soccer training were finishing up in the complex behind him while a GAA team and running club trained on pitches.
Children as young as nine years old were among those who spilt out and ran in “sheer terror” making for surrounding fields and banks shortly after 8pm on Wednesday night when word spread that the sound they had heard wasn’t fireworks, but gunshots.
Some of those on the track tried to move younger players to safety to the top corner of the grounds; others ran to the injured policeman.
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“We were afraid to move as we thought there was a crazed gun-man running about,” one footballer told The Irish Times.
“I could see him on the track and there was people round him helping him, he was able to talk. Everyone ran to help right away without thinking of the potential danger. People came out with towels.
“Then we all made our way into the building. There was a lot of children inside crying, others were just staring and saying nothing. The staff inside the centre were brilliant and going around with sugary drinks for the children to kill the shock.
“I couldn’t tell you when the police came. Every minute felt like an hour to be honest.
“It was surreal. I’m an adult and I feel out of sorts today but for those children… On the pitches, it was nine-, 10-, 11-year-olds – an age where they shouldn’t have to experience that.
“It wasn’t until afterwards you were thinking, ‘Did that just really happen?’ There was a deathly silence.
“Omagh’s had enough tragedy, it’s definitely not needed.”
Under a clear blue sky on Thursday morning, that silence still hung over the town.
Blue and white police cordons sealed the scene of the attack where two men walked into the ground’s car park and opened fire on the high-profile PSNI officer after he finished up coaching an under-15s soccer team. On Thursday, the centre was surrounded by armed police officers and police vehicles.
A five-minute drive from the town centre, the Youth Sport Omagh complex opened in 2001, three years after the single worst atrocity of the Troubles took place in the town, when a dissident republican bomb attack killed 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, on August 15th, 1998.
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Less than two miles away, 25-year-old police constable Ronan Kerr was murdered by a booby-trap car bomb on April 2nd, 2011.
Standing outside the sports centre, SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan says he had been receiving calls from “distressed” people throughout the night.
He was at the scene shortly after the attack where “sheet white” young officers manned the gates.
McCrossan points to the centre and says: “This place has been an integral part of youth infrastructure in Omagh for over 20 years and was built with peace money after the bomb.
“There’s GAA pitches, rugby pitches, football pitches, running tracks and a great wee coffee shop for socialising, people come from out of town to travel here and it was very busy last night.
“I was in Sion Mills yesterday evening when I heard sirens and my phone started ringing after 8pm, I knew something was wrong instantly.
“I was in shock but it’s only today you realise how brutal and serious this is.
“This will hit very hard on Omagh; the town has suffered some of the worst and most violent acts of the Troubles. The scars haven’t healed.
“It will be a sore reminder of just how fragile things can become. But the one thing I’ll say about the people here is they’re strong, they’re resilient and they’re entirely dedicated to peace.
“Those responsible for what happened here last night have no support whatsoever and need to be called out for what this is; this was a blatant act of evil terror in our community.
“Not just was it an attack on John Caldwell and the PSNI, but it was also an attack on the children and young people of Omagh.”
Close to a tall glass monument dedicated to the bomb victims – which stands at the site of the attack on the town’s Market Street – Jolene McCaugherty was returning from a visit to a charity shop.
She reflects on how “eerie” the atmosphere was on the quiet main street just an hour before lunchtime.
“Everybody’s just stunned, especially at where the shooting happened,” she says.
“My own children go to the sports centre for football training and running. I’m originally from England and moved to Omagh a year before the bomb as my dad’s from here.
“I had friends from England ringing me up last night as they’ve heard me talking about the centre. I also live near where Ronan Kerr was killed.
“I told them I was okay and how lovely a town Omagh is. Even after the bomb, everyone just sort clung together. We have to do the same thing now.”
For food bank volunteer, Stephen Colton, the shooting has brought back memories.
“It takes you back to when Ronan was killed. We don’t need it. It’s going to make people on edge,” he says.
“It’s the fact he was loading the footballs into the back of the car; how could anybody do that?
“Our day is trying to help people who are vulnerable and homeless; and then there’s another set of people trying to do these type of things; it just shows the complete disregard for human life.”
Charity shop worker Violet Dennehy fears the shooting will create fear.
“It’s just only by the grace of god no one else was hurt. What a terrible sight for those poor children and his own son,” she says.
“Our town’s been quiet but suddenly we’re back to square one again. When I saw it coming up on Twitter last night it gave me that creepy sensation – it takes you back to the Troubles.”
