MANILA, Philippines?He heard none of the cries of the hostages at the critical minutes of the 11-hour nightmare. And while police found no evidence of contact fire among the victims, he recounted they were shot at close range.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima noted several gaps or discrepancies in the recollection of bus driver Alberto Lubang, a key witness in the August 23 bus hostage drama that ended in the death of eight Hong Kong tourists and gunman Rolando Mendoza.

De Lima, chair of an inter-agency Incident Investigation and Review Committee (IIRC) investigating the debacle, said that since Lubang's state of mind at the time of the incident was critical, she would invite psychology experts to shed light on how trauma could have affected his memory.

?It's very important. We have to consider the fact that he spent hours being subjected to that kind of stress, nervousness, fear, etc.,? De Lima told reporters past 10 p.m. Wednesday, at the close of IIRC's public proceedings.

She said the panel will seek the expertise of psychologists to determine how duress could have hampered Lubang's accurate retention of what indeed happened inside the tourist bus.

?We are evaluating Lubang's account very well. We noticed some parts that seem... we cannot just accept his whole account until we see all other evidence,? De Lima added.

For one, she said, Lubang said in his testimony before the IIRC panel that ?he never heard cries? although an audio recording of a radio interview with Mendoza at the critical hour of the incident revealed that hostages were crying and screaming at the time.

In reenacting how Mendoza fired shots at the hostages, Lubang, who escaped just as the gunman started spraying bullets inside the bus, remembered that the victims were shot at close range, although how close was "close" was never really defined during the hearing.

Police forensic findings, however, revealed that none of the victims showed signs of contact fire and were likely shot from more than two feet away, as crime scene investigators told the panel Wednesday night.

?The way he demonstrated it, at least up to the point that he was there and Mendoza stopped somewhere in the middle, he said he fired at close range,? De Lima said.

?That's why we're interested in [finding evidence of] tattooing, but according to PNP-SOCO (Philippine National Police- Scene of the Crime Operatives), there's no tattooing. So at what range [were they shot]?,? she added.

Such inconsistencies were not necessarily suspicious, De Lima said, considering what could have been Lubang's mental state at the time.

Separate examinations by the National Bureau of Investigation and PNP-SOCO found no signs of near fire among the victims as all gunshot wounds were found with no signs of gunpowder tattooing, smudging or burns. Such signs would show in gunshot wounds inflicted from a distance of at most 24 inches, medico legal officials testified Tuesday night.

PNP-SOCO officials also told the panel that the victims sustained gunshot wounds smaller at the entry point than at the exit, another sign that they were not shot at close range. Exit wounds were also characteristic of gunshot wounds from an M-16 bullet, one of two firearms that Mendoza was known to have used during the shooting.

The SOCO team also testified that there has yet to be confirmation whether all the victims were killed by Mendoza pending the conclusion of the ballistics examination. A PNP official had earlier announced that Mendoza's firearm killed all the victims, prompting De Lima to issue a gag order.

The PNP autopsy also found that some of the victims sustained shots from behind and from the side, indicating no singular direction of where the shots came from.