Face-to-face with terrorism

A businesswoman told yesterday how she rushed to the aid of the policewoman gunned down by the IRA and came face-to-face with the horror of terrorism.

Miriam Collins, 40, was in her office above Londonderry's courthouse when RUC constable Alice Collins (left, no relation) was shot in the back by an IRA sniper on Thursday. Together with police officers she tried to tend the injured woman's wounds. Miriam Collins said yesterday: "I'm appalled that I have had to come face-to-face with evil."

"I was in my office upstairs when I heard the bang. I ran down and I saw Alice lying on the ground with one of her colleagues trying to assist her ... Alice neither moved nor spoke."