POLICE GIVE HARROWING ACCOUNTS OF BOMBS IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH
Police give harrowing accounts of bomb's immediate aftermath
POLICE officers confronted with the bloody carnage immediately after the Omagh bombing yesterday relived the scenes of horror.
One constable called to give evidence to the High Court civil action in Belfast told how he went around with a fire extinguisher trying to put out burning victims.
He was later given three dead bodies to guard, including one person decapitated by the blast and another whose head had been partially blown off.
The case against five men being sued by families of some of the 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, killed in the August 15 1998 Real IRA attack heard how bodies and limbs lay amid gushing water from burst mains.
"There were people I know well who are now deceased. They were in a shocking state," Sergeant Wesley McCracken said.
"There were bodies strewn across there in all states, all conditions and all states of undress where clothing had been flung off.
"It was horrendous."
The harrowing accounts of Mr McCracken and three other officers came on the second day of the multi-million-pound compensation case.
Victims' relatives have taken convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly to court, claiming they were responsible for the Omagh bombing.
All five deny liability.
Lawyers for the families began by showing footage from three amateur videos, taken directly after the explosion and capturing the mayhem of the day.
Mr McCracken, a veteran of 20 years' service, said he had also been at the scene of the 1982 Droppin' Well bombing in Co Derry where 17 people were killed.
But that outrage paled in comparison to what he was confronted with in Omagh, the court heard.
With police having been told the bomb was planted at Omagh Courthouse, hundreds of yards from where it actually went off, Mr McCracken recalled the fury directed at him by some people as he helped the injured.
He told Brett Lockhart QC, for the families: "I remember them shouting 'You drove us into the bomb. Police put us into the bomb'.
"But my understanding was the bomb scare was in the courthouse area. It would have been totally unprofessional of police to put people in the area where the bomb was if they knew it was there."
Even though he said he had tried to forget some of the harrowing details, Mr McCracken told the court how he treated a large number of casualties.
He said it was between 30 and 40 minutes after the explosion before some kind of organisation came into effect.
Sheets and other garments were taken from a curtain shop to wrap the dead in.
"I have seen deceased on a regular basis but this was beyond the pale," Mr McCracken said.
Cross examined by Dermot Fee QC, for Daly and Murphy, Mr McCracken confirmed that he had not been told about one of three bomb warnings which claimed a device had been left at Main Street, 200 yards from the courthouse.
He was followed into the witness box by Constable Louise Stewart, who said one of her first actions on arrival at the scene was to help a screaming woman whose arm was on fire.
"Water was gushing down the street, the place was completely strewn with debris, with bodies, with parts of bodies," she told the court.
"It was just so horrific words can never describe it."
Later, at a temporary mortuary, bodies were laid out, numbered and given approximate ages and heights.
"I remember putting my hand inside a girl's pocket and lifting out a name badge," Ms Stewart said.
"She was a young girl either coming from work or going to work but I can't recall the name now."
Constable Geoffrey Eaken said he first encountered one of the furthest bodies from the bomb site, that of a young man lying in the middle of the road.
"The lower part of his face was missing, the lower jaw was missing," he recalled.
"I checked for any sign of life but there was none. He was dead."
As he moved down Market Street he said most of those he saw were women and children.
He said he helped free one woman trapped under the wreckage of a car before finding more of the dead.
"There was lot of screaming - people severely injured, people dismembered, limbs missing," he said.
Mr Eaken told how one woman in a shop was totally oblivious to her lower leg being on fire. Others were in a similar state, the court heard.
He said: "I got a fire extinguisher and went round for a few minutes and for anybody I could put flames out I did so.
I just continued on, going from casualty to casualty."
Due to the number of victims police officers were each allocated three bodies to guard after they had been taken to a makeshift mortuary in a nearby entry.
Mr Eaken was given numbers seven, eight and nine, he recalled.
"Two of the bodies were women, the third a small child. The first body I was quite taken aback [with]. She had been completely decapitated. There was no head on the corpse at all.
"The second body, the top of the lady's head had been removed by the force of the explosion. Then, in contrast, the third body appeared to be fairly intact."
The fourth police witness, Constable Allan Palmer, suffered shrapnel injuries in the blast yet still went to the aid of others.
"It was a battlefield. It was horrendous," he said.
Among those he tended was a woman whose hand had been partially severed off.
Mr Palmer also told how, amid the chaos at Tyrone County Hospital, one person ran in with a limb in a bid to help the emergency services.
Cross-examined by Michael O'Higgins SC, for McKevitt, the officer said he never heard of the warning citing 200 yards from the courthouse.
POLICE officers confronted with the bloody carnage immediately after the Omagh bombing yesterday relived the scenes of horror.
One constable called to give evidence to the High Court civil action in Belfast told how he went around with a fire extinguisher trying to put out burning victims.
He was later given three dead bodies to guard, including one person decapitated by the blast and another whose head had been partially blown off.
The case against five men being sued by families of some of the 29 people, including a woman pregnant with twins, killed in the August 15 1998 Real IRA attack heard how bodies and limbs lay amid gushing water from burst mains.
"There were people I know well who are now deceased. They were in a shocking state," Sergeant Wesley McCracken said.
"There were bodies strewn across there in all states, all conditions and all states of undress where clothing had been flung off.
"It was horrendous."
The harrowing accounts of Mr McCracken and three other officers came on the second day of the multi-million-pound compensation case.
Victims' relatives have taken convicted Real IRA leader Michael McKevitt, Seamus McKenna, Liam Campbell, Colm Murphy and Seamus Daly to court, claiming they were responsible for the Omagh bombing.
All five deny liability.
Lawyers for the families began by showing footage from three amateur videos, taken directly after the explosion and capturing the mayhem of the day.
Mr McCracken, a veteran of 20 years' service, said he had also been at the scene of the 1982 Droppin' Well bombing in Co Derry where 17 people were killed.
But that outrage paled in comparison to what he was confronted with in Omagh, the court heard.
With police having been told the bomb was planted at Omagh Courthouse, hundreds of yards from where it actually went off, Mr McCracken recalled the fury directed at him by some people as he helped the injured.
He told Brett Lockhart QC, for the families: "I remember them shouting 'You drove us into the bomb. Police put us into the bomb'.
"But my understanding was the bomb scare was in the courthouse area. It would have been totally unprofessional of police to put people in the area where the bomb was if they knew it was there."
Even though he said he had tried to forget some of the harrowing details, Mr McCracken told the court how he treated a large number of casualties.
He said it was between 30 and 40 minutes after the explosion before some kind of organisation came into effect.
Sheets and other garments were taken from a curtain shop to wrap the dead in.
"I have seen deceased on a regular basis but this was beyond the pale," Mr McCracken said.
Cross examined by Dermot Fee QC, for Daly and Murphy, Mr McCracken confirmed that he had not been told about one of three bomb warnings which claimed a device had been left at Main Street, 200 yards from the courthouse.
He was followed into the witness box by Constable Louise Stewart, who said one of her first actions on arrival at the scene was to help a screaming woman whose arm was on fire.
"Water was gushing down the street, the place was completely strewn with debris, with bodies, with parts of bodies," she told the court.
"It was just so horrific words can never describe it."
Later, at a temporary mortuary, bodies were laid out, numbered and given approximate ages and heights.
"I remember putting my hand inside a girl's pocket and lifting out a name badge," Ms Stewart said.
"She was a young girl either coming from work or going to work but I can't recall the name now."
Constable Geoffrey Eaken said he first encountered one of the furthest bodies from the bomb site, that of a young man lying in the middle of the road.
"The lower part of his face was missing, the lower jaw was missing," he recalled.
"I checked for any sign of life but there was none. He was dead."
As he moved down Market Street he said most of those he saw were women and children.
He said he helped free one woman trapped under the wreckage of a car before finding more of the dead.
"There was lot of screaming - people severely injured, people dismembered, limbs missing," he said.
Mr Eaken told how one woman in a shop was totally oblivious to her lower leg being on fire. Others were in a similar state, the court heard.
He said: "I got a fire extinguisher and went round for a few minutes and for anybody I could put flames out I did so.
I just continued on, going from casualty to casualty."
Due to the number of victims police officers were each allocated three bodies to guard after they had been taken to a makeshift mortuary in a nearby entry.
Mr Eaken was given numbers seven, eight and nine, he recalled.
"Two of the bodies were women, the third a small child. The first body I was quite taken aback [with]. She had been completely decapitated. There was no head on the corpse at all.
"The second body, the top of the lady's head had been removed by the force of the explosion. Then, in contrast, the third body appeared to be fairly intact."
The fourth police witness, Constable Allan Palmer, suffered shrapnel injuries in the blast yet still went to the aid of others.
"It was a battlefield. It was horrendous," he said.
Among those he tended was a woman whose hand had been partially severed off.
Mr Palmer also told how, amid the chaos at Tyrone County Hospital, one person ran in with a limb in a bid to help the emergency services.
Cross-examined by Michael O'Higgins SC, for McKevitt, the officer said he never heard of the warning citing 200 yards from the courthouse.
Further Information
Publisher: THE IRISH NEWS
Ref: IN/0913
Published Date: 09-Apr-08
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