A former British serviceman who took part in the march which turned
into Bloody Sunday said troops were given orders to fire when the crowd had their backs to them.
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Mr John McLaughlin also told the inquiry that his efforts to seek medical help for two of the casualties were hampered by a soldier who told him to let them bleed to death.
Mr McLaughlin was giving his evidence came on day 67 of the public hearings into events of January 30th 1972, when 13 men were shot dead in Derry’s Bogside in what was supposed to be an arrest operation by paratroopers.
He told the tribunal that he was roughly 50 yards behind the troops who deployed from two armoured personnel carriers on Rossville Street - those at the centre of the inquiry.
His statement to the inquiry said: "After the soldiers had taken up firing positions, I heard the officer give the order to fire.
"He said something like `Identify your target and fire'."
Mr McLaughlin said there were no people in the car park of the Rossville Flats and the rubble barricade across Rossville Street - scene of seven of the killings - when the soldiers opened fire. He believed the troops were shooting towards the main body of marchers, further south at Free Derry Corner.
Mr McLaughlin said he fled the scene and ran into a house where two of the injured were receiving first aid.
They were Damien Donaghy, 15, and John Johnston, 59, who were wounded on the fringe of the Bogside in the minutes before the troops entered the district. Mr Johnston died five months later.
Mr McLaughlin said he attempted to stem bleeding in Damien Donaghy's leg with a makeshift tourniquet, but with limited success. As he tried to leave the house to summon more help he encountered a soldier carrying a self-loading rifle and with his finger on the trigger, he said.
He stated: "I asked the soldier if he would let me by to get an ambulance, because there were two wounded people in the house and if I did not get an ambulance they would bleed to death."
He said the soldier said he should let the man bleed to death - then told him to get inside the house or he would blow his brains out.
PA