A boy was seen carrying what appeared to be a tray of nail or petrol bombs at the scene of two of the Bloody Sunday killings, it was claimed at the Saville Inquiry today.
British troops opened fire on Bloody Sunday, January 30th, 1972, killing 13 Catholic civil rights marchers. The British claim they did so only after being attacked by gunfire and nail bombs.
Relatives of those killed say it was an unprovoked assault on a defenceless population.
Mr Craig, who was 25 that day, said he was by a fence in Glenfada Park North - where Jim Wray and William McKinney died - when he saw a boy aged about 10 years old.
He said: "He was carrying a tray made of a biscuit tin lid which looked to be full of petrol or nail bombs, although it may not have been as I have never seen a nail bomb and so do not actually know what one looks like.
"They looked like fireworks. He was crying his eyes out and he said to me, 'Mister, what do I do with these?'
"The big guys [paratroopers] were coming across Glenfada Park and I knew that if we had been caught with those bombs we would have been shot dead," Mr Craig said.
"I was crying at this stage and I kicked the tray out of his hands and away from us and said: 'Get your arse out of here'. Whatever was on that tray never got used that day".
PA