A Leicestershire man has described the horror of seeing people shot and killed around him on an aid boat bound for Gaza.

Ismail Patel said he saw a man shot dead in front of him, as bullets rained down from a helicopter.

The 47-year-old optician from Oadby was speaking of the traumatic events which saw hundreds of activists clashing with Israeli commandos on a fleet of six ships.

Nine people were killed and many were left injured in the incident, which took place in the early hours of Monday morning.

The rest, including Mr Patel, were sent to Israeli jails before being deported to Turkey yesterday.

Father-of-three Mr Patel, said he was "physically fine but emotionally traumatised" by what had happened.

He spoke to the Mercury from an Istanbul hotel yesterday and is due to return to the UK and attend a press conference in London today. He said: "On Sunday night three Israeli frigates came within about half a mile of us. It was pitch black but we could see the lights on the ships and we realised that we were going to have a difficult night.

"Nothing happened until 4am (local time) when we heard quite a lot of speed boats coming towards us – they might have been into double figures.

"As soon as they started approaching tear gas was fired and sound bombs were dropped on the deck.

"No warning was given, we were in international waters about 100 miles away from the shore.

"There were some hose pipes which were used to repel the soldiers as they landed and after 10-15 minutes they moved away. Then a helicopter arrived and started firing rubber bullets down on us.

"I was on the second deck at the back, so I had a view of the top deck and the sides as well.

"Two soldiers appeared, moved away, then a second helicopter came overhead and they started firing live bullets onto the deck.

"I personally witnessed four deaths in front of me, one was shot in the back of his head as he was running away.

"He fell two feet away from me so I had to drag him away from the firing, it was very traumatising and yes, I feared for my life.

"After a few minutes I took over the tannoy system and I said 'we surrender, please don't fire' and told people to put their hands on their knees to show they had no weapons.

"As I was doing that people were bringing the injured onto the floor in front of me. It felt like it carried on for a lifetime.

"At the end of the raid we counted 28 people had been shot and some were bleeding profusely.

"It all ended at about 10am and we were rounded up, told to sit down and plastic straps were tied around our wrists.

"We were kept in that position until Tuesday and that was the worst moment.

"People weren't allowed to eat, drink, and we didn't know what was going to happen to us because we thought we'd been kidnapped. That was the most frightening part because we didn't know if the world knew what had happened."

Mr Patel was one of 37 British citizens taking part in the convoy. Israel says its troops acted in self defence when activists used weapons against them as they boarded the ships.

Kevin Ovenden is an aide to the former MP George Galloway and was travelling with Mr Patel on the lead ship, the Mavi Marmara.

Speaking to the Mercury from another Istanbul hotel, he said: "The word horrific is over-used but it truly was horrific. Myself, Ismail and other Britons saw people shot directly through their heads with live rounds so hard that they burst open their skulls."