A former soldier has described the violent scenes he witnessed at a military base in Co Antrim during a Real IRA attack two years ago.
Mark Fitzpatrick, who has since left the British Army as a result of the injuries he sustained in the attack, was giving evidence in the trial of Colin Duffy and Britan Shivers, who are accused of murdering Sappers Mark Quinsey and Patrick Azimkar in 2009.
Mr Duffy, 43, from Lurgan in Armagh, and Brian Shivers, 46, from Magherafelt in Derry have also pleaded not guilty to several counts of attempted murder.
Today, Antrim Crown Court heard how Mr Fitzpatrick, along with a number of other soldiers, went to collect a delivery of pizza at the gates of the barracks on the night of 7 March.
He told the court there was a loud noise and a soldier shouted "get down".
He said he saw a gunman wearing a balaclava and moved to take cover inside the car of one of the pizza delivery drivers. The court was told there was 10-15 seconds of constant automatic fire.
He said when the gunman spotted him, he opened fire on the car.
Both he and the delivery driver were seriously injured.
Mr Azimkar's mother wept in court as Mr Fitzpatrick described seeing her son lying on his front, close to the road. He told the court, the gunman "finished Patrick off".
Mr Fitzpatrick suffered gunshot wounds to the hand, shoulder and lung in the attack.
He said his hand "was half off" and that he felt the side of face "had come off" after a bullet "skinned" the side of his head.
He told the court he believed a tourniquet, applied by one of his Army colleagues in the minutes after the shooting, had saved his life.
Under cross-examination from defence lawyers, he admitted that at one point he believed the gunman to be over "six foot tall". He said he thought the gunman was "not an old man" as "he knew what he was doing".
Mr Azimkar, 21, from north London and Mark Quinsey, 23, from Birmingham were shot dead the night before they were due to be deployed to Afghanistan.
The trial at Antrim Crown Court, before Mr Justice Hart, is expected to last at least four weeks.
