A group of people huddled in a stairwell in fear for their lives and praying as gunfire echoed outside on Bloody Sunday, it was claimed today.
The Saville inquiry heard that one of the five taking shelter commented: "I don't think we will get out of here alive" after looking out at Army paratroopers who moved into Derry's Bogside on January 30th, 1972.
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Mrs Roisin Stewart also told the tribunal she took part in the march against the wishes of her mother.
Mrs Stewart recounted that at the end of the day, Mr Charlie McGuigan, the son of one of those killed spoke of getting home to let his parents know he was safe, unaware that a body lying covered nearby was his father Barney.
Earlier she said that she ran into a block of the Rossville flats with a friend, Mr Willie Meenan, as the soldiers arrived nearby and emerged onto a balcony to see a boy throw an empty milk bottle into the car park below.
"A split second after the milk bottle had been thrown a number of shots rang out from the direction of the Rossville flats car park. I had the immediate impression that the shots were aimed at the balcony where we were.
"I was violently pushed to the ground by Willie Meenan and I saw the boy throw himself back inside the doorway that he had come out of. I do not think the boy had been shot."
The pair retreated back into the stairwell where they joined local pub bouncer "Barman" Duffy, a pregnant woman and her husband.
Mr Duffy said he did not think they were going to get out alive and started leading the party in saying the Rosary.
Mrs Stewart said: "At this stage we were praying for a happy death."
PA