People on fire, a decapitated woman, a small child dead with his eyes open: Police tell of aftermath of Omagh car-bomb

Three amateur videos taken immediately after of the 500lb car-bomb explosion were shown to a judge hearing the landmark legal civil action by families who lost loved ones in the attack.

Their counsel Lord Brennan, QC, has described as "a massacre of the innocents" the outrage by the Real IRA, which claimed 31 lives including unborn twins.

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The harrowing footage, shown at the start of the families' evidence against the five men they say were responsible for the bombing, vividly underscored the description.

To the sound of screams, shouts and sirens, the videos show a smoke-filled Market Street moments after the bomb hidden in the boot of a Vauxhall Cavalier exploded on a busy Saturday afternoon in Omagh, county town of Tyrone.

Bodies litter the street. Gruesomely injured shoppers lie on the road littered with debris. Others desperately try to help.

"Two hands, keep the pressure on," says one voice off camera to a passer-by administering emergency first aid.

A woman in a blood- spattered shirt wanders into view, dazed and confused.

Others more grievously injured are seen manhandled on to a bus commandeered as an emergency vehicle to ferry casualties to hospital.

Amid the panic a man is heard muttering: "You will not believe the carnage. You will not f****** believe it."

Six families are attempting to win £10million damages against five men they say are responsible for the bombing, which caused the greatest loss of life of any terrorist attack in Northern Ireland.

They are suing Real IRA godfather Michael McKevitt, Liam Campbell, Seamus Daly, Colm Murphy and Seamus McKenna in the unprecedented action, launched after a campaign spearheaded by the Daily Mail.

The men deny the allegations. The first police officers on the scene gave evidence yesterday at Belfast High Court, where Mr Justice Morgan is hearing the historic case without a jury.

Sergeant Wesley McCracken, who had 20 years experience of Northern Ireland's Troubles, said: "It was the most horrific sight in my life."

He said he had been at the scene of the Droppin Well pub bombing at Ballykelly in 1982, when 11 soldiers and six civilians died.

He added: "It paled in significance in terms of the large numbers of casualties and deaths.

"There were bodies strewn across the street in all conditions. Clothes had been blown off some. It was horrendous."

A warning from the Real IRA had mentioned the Court House so police were moving the public away from there, unaware that they were actually approaching the bomb.

Sgt McCracken said some shouted at him: "You drove us into the bomb. The police put us into the bomb."

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Other officers also told the court what they saw on August 15, 1998.

PC Geoffrey Eakin spotted the body of a man some way from the bomb with part of his face missing.

Then he saw a young boy, his body "fairly much intact" with his eyes open.

After taking his pulse, the policeman realised he was dead.

"Then I saw a young lady in shock, totally oblivious that her lower leg was on fire. A lot of people were on fire.

"I got a fire extinguisher out and basically went around putting the flames out."

A mortuary was set up in an alley and police officers were each allocated three bodies.

PC Eakin was given numbers 7,8 and 9 - two women and a child.

"The first woman, I was quite taken aback by it because she had been completely decapitated," he said.

"There was no head on the corpse at all - just taken clean off.

"The second woman, the top half of her head had been removed by the force of the explosions.

"In contrast, the body of the small child appeared to be totally intact."

PC Allan Palmer was among those shepherding shoppers towards the car bomb when it detonated in front of them.

He was hit by shrapnel and stumbled forward to see "cars on fire, bodies on fire".

He described seeing one man jump into the crater caused by the bomb and dig with his bare hands to see if there were any survivors.

PC Palmer described the "mayhem" at Tyrone County Hospital as it struggled to cope with the disaster.

"People were running about with parts of bodies. Someone ran in and handed a limb to a constable."

The case continues.