Derrick Bird, the crazed gunman shot at a teenage girl twice, as she ran for her life during the Cumbria massacre.

Ashleigh Glaister, who was14 at the time, broke down and wept as she described her escape after Bird, who killed 12 people, beckoned her over to his taxi in the middle of his rampage

She said she froze in terror after seeing the killer’s gun when he asked to speak to her.

Ashleigh told the inquest into Bird’s killing spree his first shot flew over her as she instinctively ducked. She narrowly escaped becoming Bird’s youngest victim,

She then fled as he fired again. “I was crying and was running away down the hill and he shot again,” she said.

“I heard the second bang. I looked around and I could see his car still there and I kept on running.”

Ashleigh said she took shelter at her sister’s home in Thornhill, near Egremont, as Bird sped off.

The inquest in Workington yesterday focused on events after Bird left Whitehaven on the morning of June 2 last year, having killed taxi driver Darren Rewcastle and injured other cabbies.

He had claimed the lives of twin brother David and solicitor Kevin Commons earlier that day.

The inquest heard Ashleigh’s sister Rachel’s 999 call, during which Ashleigh, now 15, could be heard crying hysterically in the background.

During earlier evidence, the schoolgirl was cuddled by her mum Phyllis and wept, dabbing her eyes with a white tissue.

Bird had just murdered Susan Hughes, 57, and Kenneth Fishburn, 71 – the fourth and fifth of the 12 victims to die – when he spotted her.

Student Jacqueline Williamson also evaded death when the killer drove past as she walked her dog 10 minutes before he shot at Ashleigh.

She recalled: “He said ‘Give me the time’. As I walked across checking my watch I noticed he was holding a gun with both hands with one on the trigger. He was looking directly at me. His eyes were staring. I’ll never ever forget that.

“I thought at first he was going to shoot the dog and then I thought he was going to shoot me. I gave him the time and then I thought, ‘This is it, he is going to shoot me’.” But Bird, 52, drove on.

The hearing heard Mrs Hughes was shot dead after heroically attempting to grab his guns. Her family feel “absolute contempt” towards him, they said in a statement after the hearing.

Leslie Hunter, 59, was also beckoned over by Bird and shot in the face and back but amazingly survived.

The inquest into the 12 deaths, plus that of Bird who shot himself, continues.