An eyewitness saw a girl place her clothing over what may have the body of Aarron McKoy minutes after he was shot dead in Clerkenwell on New Year’s Day, a court heard.

Mr McKoy had ben celebrating his 22nd birthday with his twin brother Lee at the Clerkenwell House Wine Bar, in Hatton Wall, when he was gunned down.

Stephan Thions, a Frenchman, was a looking out of window onto Hatton Wall at a crowd outside the bar when he saw a group of men chase another man down the street.

He told the Old Bailey they crossed Leather Lane and stopped near a barrier across the road, where he saw “bodies moving”, and he thought they were fighting because they were moving fast, shouting and there had been fighting before they started running.

He heard very big bangs, which he assumed were gun shots, then some of the men came jogging back.

A girl then walked up to the barrier, took her top off and placed if over what he believed was someone on the floor - although the barrier obscured his view of the ground.

The men who had returned to Hatton Wall then spent ten minutes picking items up form the pavement, he told the court.

Earlier the court heard Mr Mckoy was killed due to bitter rivalry between street gangs; the Holly Street Boys, with whom the McKoy twins were associated, and London Fields Boys and Lordship Boys, the latter based in Stoke Newington.

Another Holly Street associate, Ricky Walkington, had been stabbed in the leg causing the venue to be cleared. In a fracas outside the club a gun went off, the prosecution claimed.

Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, said: “Aarron Mckoy was targeted for a physical assault. Gang rivalry had erupted in its most violent form.

He added: “Very soon after the second physical attack on him he was cornered having tried to get away. Possibly because he slipped and fell, the small pursuing mob shot him dead. The person holding the gun was Dean Smith.”

Dean Smith, 26, from Lordship Road, Stoke Newington, a rapper also known by his street named Bungle, is said to have pulled the trigger.

Perrie Dennis, 22, of Thornbury Close, Newington Green, Osman Mohammed, 23, of Homerton Road, Hackney, Daniel Oyetoro, 27, of Charlbury Crescent, Romford, and Jack Nichols, 21, and Ceon Hewitt, 22, of High Street, Wickford, are also charged with his murder.

The trial continues.