British soldiers found no weapons near the bodies of three of the men shot dead on Bloody Sunday, the Saville Inquiry was told today.
A paratrooper, known as Soldier 006, said he was one of the troops who went to collect the bodies of the men from a rubble barricade close to the Rossville Flats in Derry and that he did not see any guns.
The soldier told the inquiry in London that he helped load the bodies into an armoured personnel carrier - known as a "pig" - but denied troops treated the bodies with disrespect.
"We didn't search the three bodies. I didn't notice any guns or explosives near them on the rubble barricade and they had nothing in their hands," he said.
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Soldier 006 said there was not enough room to lay the bodies side-by-side in the back of the vehicle.
"I thought we would be shot at and wanted to get away from the rubble barricade as fast as we could," he said. "We put the bodies into the back of the vehicle as quickly as we could. We then got into the back and had to sit with our feet on top of them, it was the only way we could get in because of lack of space".
Soldier 006 said soldiers came under fire from a single rifle shot as they arrived in the nationalist Bogside area on the day of the riots in 1972.
"After we heard the shot, one of the lads went to look to see where it had come from. We did not return fire as there was nothing to shoot at. I knew then that we would have to be on our toes," he added. He said paratroopers intended to confront rioters and disperse or arrest them with "controlled aggression" on Bloody Sunday.
The Saville Inquiry is examining the events of January 30th, 1972, when 13 civil rights marchers were shot dead by soldiers in Derry. A 14th man died later.