A civilian witness today described how he saw a young man shot dead as the pair of them tried to escape bullets on Bloody Sunday.
Mr Hugh O'Donnell told the Saville Inquiry he began running for his life when he saw a soldier shooting from the hip in his direction in the Rossville Flats area of the Bogside.
He said he became conscious of a youth matching him stride for stride as they fled down Rossville Street.
"It was almost as if we were running a race I felt I could reach out and touch him. We were absolutely flying when suddenly he seemed to get knocked forward and came flying past me on the left."
Mr O'Donnell, who was 18 on January 30th, 1972,when 13 civilians were shot dead by paratroopers, said he managed to make it around the corner and drop to the ground as the bullets bounced off the footpath in Rossville Street.
He said he then helped to pull the shot youth around the corner. "I pulled up his jumper and there was a black hole bigger than a tennis ball below his ribcage. I am not sure which side now but I believe it was on the left."
He told the iquiry he now believes the youth that ran beside him was 17-year-old Hugh Gilmore, who was shot in Rossville Street. He said he did not recognise Mr Gilmore at the time of the shooting but he would have known him around the Bogside at the time.
Asked if Mr Gilmore had anything in his hands as he ran along, he said: "His hands were empty."
In a supplementary statement to the Inquiry, Mr O'Donnell denied claims of former IRA man Paddy Ward that he was in the Provisional IRA at the time of Bloody Sunday.
The claims were made in a discussion between Mr Ward and RUC Special Branch in January 1974.
"I should say straight away that I was not involved in either wing of the IRA on January 30th1972. I remember Paddy Ward. I always thought he was quite a nice guy - that is until what I saw what he said in those notes."
He also denies Mr Ward's claims that he tried to get him to join the IRA, describing everything he said as a "fabrication"
"I think I know the reason he would have done this. The reason is that I was convicted in 1974 of causing an explosion. I was therefore in prison when Paddy Ward would have been making these statements."