THE OMAGH civil action has heard detailed and graphic witness accounts of the bombing in 1998 which killed 29 people and unborn twins and injured hundreds.
The second day of the hearing at the Belfast High Court was marked by the playing of video pictures taken in the immediate aftermath of the Real IRA explosion in the town centre.
After Mr Justice Morgan had dealt with a series of legal applications, the court watched several minutes of footage showing the extent of the carnage and destruction. The images were shown on large screens for the purposes of the civil action which is being taken by some families of the dead against five men they believe were connected to the atrocity.
None of the five men named in the action, Michael McKevitt, Seamus Daly, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna, was present in court for the proceedings. They deny involvement.
Four former RUC officers also gave evidence concerning police conduct in Omagh on the day of the bombing following receipt of the bomb warnings.
Sgt Wesley McCracken said he and his officers began to evacuate the town centre around the courthouse and to search for what he called secondary devices. It was in the course of this that the 200kg bomb exploded in Market Street.
The officer told the court of seeing those fleeing from the bomb site and of being told by one person that the RUC "drove us into the bomb".
This was a reference to the police evacuation of the immediate vicinity of the courthouse following receipt of the telephoned warning while the bomb exploded some 400 yards away on Market Street.
Sgt McCracken said he rushed to the scene of the explosion where he saw bodies strewn across the street "in all states". The situation was hampered by a burst water main, fractured in the blast.
It was "horrendous" and much worse than the Droppin' Well pub bomb of 1982 in Co Derry which he had also attended as a police officer.
Under cross-examination he said he had not been told of a second bomb warning regarding a more precise location for the device before it exploded.
Constable Louise Stewart, who also attended the aftermath of the explosion, described the harrowing scene. She told the court of seeing bodies and body parts in a scene which was "so horrendous, words cannot describe it".
Struggling to maintain her composure she recollected being sent to a temporary mortuary at a British army barracks in the town. The court was told of efforts she and others made to identify some of the bodies.
Constable Alan Palmer compared the scene at the seat of the explosion to a battlefield. Despite suffering from shrapnel injuries he gave first aid to the injured. He also told the court there was "mayhem" at the accident and emergency unit of Omagh hospital.
Evidence from other RUC officers was given to the court in a series of written statements which were read by counsel for the Omagh families.
These accounts contained harrowing details of the recovery of bodies and body parts and the efforts taken by police and emergency services to preserve the scene for criminal investigation.
The court was told of a bus being used to ferry the walking wounded to hospital for treatment and of the emergency services using doors from bomb damaged premises as improvised stretchers to transport the more seriously injured.
Bodies taken to the temporary mortuary were identified only by number at first. The court also heard that some witnesses' accounts were incomplete because of the shock of the day's events.
The case continues.