Sinn Féin chairman Mr Mitchel McLaughlin is one of "a lot" of people who claim to have been the target of one of the first shots of Bloody Sunday, it was alleged today.
Edmund Lawson QC told Day 74 of the Saville Inquiry of at least six other men who believed the round was aimed at them.
Foyle Assembly member Mr McLaughlin, who is set to give evidence to the tribunal in the Guildhall in Derry this month, alleges in his written statement the shooting was "a serious effort" to blow his head off.
The inquiry has already heard live evidence from three men who witnessed the shot, that Lieutenant N - his real identity is protected - claims to have fired, and been told that 18 people claim it came close to hitting them.
Examining one of the men, Mr William McCloskey, Mr Lawson, who acts for more than 400 soldiers, said: "A lot of people are going to tell the tribunal that they thought the shot or shots were being fired at them."
Among them were Mr McLaughlin, then a 26 year-old refrigeration engineer, he said.
Lieutenant N's lawyers have already told the hearing he admits firing a round over the heads of people on Chamberlain Street in Derry because he felt threatened by an advancing crowd.
The shot is possibly the first fired by soldiers inside the Bogside on January 30th 1972 during a military operation in the midst of a civil rights demonstration which ended with 13 Catholic men fatally wounded.
PA