He pointed his gun at me... I dived, but he shot me in back

Cabbie Don Reed was shot on the same rank in Whitehaven where his colleague Darren Rewcastle was killed. Mr Reed said Bird drove up to the rank, called Mr Rewcastle across to his car and shot him at point-blank range. He then turned the gun on him:

"He then drove up by me, pointed it at me and I just took a dive and he went at me. He shot me in the back. I'm an ex-soldier so it all kicked in. I started crawling on my hands and knees. My head's a mess."

Soon afterwards schoolgirl Ashley Gastor, 15, also had the narrowest of escapes as she walked along a quiet road in Whitehaven when Bird's car pulled up. She initially thought he was going to ask directions but then spotted the gun aimed at her.

She said: "He was pointing a gun at me through the window. I put my hands over my head and ducked down to protect myself, and the gun was fired. I felt the bullet go past my ponytail. Then I ran down the hill and he fired another shot."

Bird then headed for Egremont, where moments after he shot Susan Hughes, cyclist Barrie Moss came across him in the street.

"I came round the corner and there was a Citroen Picasso parked in the middle of the road with the driver side door wide open," the technical consultant from St Bees said.

"I cycled up to it, thinking it was a bit strange and as I got up to it, it said taxi on the side.

"My first thought was that some teenagers had got out and run off into the estate and the taxi driver had got out and chased after them.

"When I got past I saw a short, fat guy looking up the hill and I thought that's got to be the taxi driver. I turned round and very briefly got a look at his face and there was no expression.

"But my eyes were drawn to a massive telescopic sight, sniper rifle. It just looked like something out of a James Bond movie.

"My thought was that it was a prop or something. He stared at me, probably not for very long, but seems longer now.

"He scurried into the car and drove down the hill. It was only when he had driven off that I saw a body slumped on the pavement. I looked and I shouted out: 'Are you OK?'"

Mr Moss called police and ran over to Mrs Hughes together with another man who came to help. "She was unconscious but still breathing, but very laboured breathing. We were shaking her to try and wake her, so she'd start breathing again.

"There was nothing we could do. It was very obvious.

"We tried to put her in the recovery position and even when we moved her, there was no way. We stayed with her, trying to keep the breathing going but it just became less and less and she died.

"Someone came out from one of the houses with a blanket and put it over her."

In Cringlethwaite, Gary Toomey, 38, heard what he thought were car tyres exploding and looked out of his winndow to see Bird's car speeding away and an injured man on his doorstep. "He was bleeding heavily from the side of his face. He said he dived out of the way of the shot and the man in the car pointed the gun down and shot him again in the back from about six feet away as he lay on the floor."

The victim had been walking back to his car after dropping some materials off at a house. Most of the pellets from the shotgun missed the man's face because he dived out of the way.

"He was in a lot of pain," said Mr Toomey. "It took about 15 minutes for the ambulance to arrive because they were so stretched, a man was shot dead further down the street and they said there was nothing they could do for him."

The landlord of the Woolpack Inn at Eskdale, Harry Berger, was shot as he went to the bank in Seascale. His wife, Paddington, rushed to his aid and found him with serious arm injuries.

"He was in considerable pain and we had to wait a long time for the ambulance because of the lock down," she said. "Eventually Harry was airlifted to hospital in Carlisle and the police drove me there. At least he is alive."