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Andy Murray has spoken publicly for the first time about narrowly escaping the Dunblane massacre, and said he hoped his success has helped the town to recover from the tragedy.

The Scot has previously only ever mentioned the horrific shootings in his autobiography in 2008.

But in a BBC documentary last night, the 26-year-old broke down in tears as he recalled the terrifying killing spree 17 years ago.

He said the incident had affected him deeply, but hoped his triumphs on the tennis court had had a positive influence on the town.

“At the time, you have no idea how tough something like that is, as you start to get older you realise,” he said.

“It’s something I’ve never really spoken about since I went on tour, since I began getting asked a lot about it by the press, because it’s something that was obviously for all of my family, and the town.

“The thing that is nice now, the whole town, they recovered from it so well.

“It wasn’t until a few years ago that I started to research it and look into it a lot because I didn’t really want to know.

“It is just nice that I’ve been able to do something the town is proud of.”

Murray, and elder brother Jamie were pupils at Dunblane Primary School where Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and one teacher on March 13, 1996, opening fire on a class of five and six-year-olds in the gymnasium with four handguns.

Murray had been walking to the gym when the shootings had begun.

In the programme, called “Andy Murray: The Man Behind the Racquet”, his mother Judy said the family knew the 43-year-old unemployed former shopkeeper, and had even given him lifts in their car.

Recalling the shooting, she said: “Andy’s class were on their way to the gym, his class were the next ones in the gym. His class was stopped when somebody went up, when they heard the noise and discovered what had happened.

“I was one of hundreds of mums that were queuing up at the school gates waiting to find out what had happened, not knowing if your children were alive or not.”

She added she still found it difficult visiting the school and purposely avoided the gym where the shootings took place.

“I actually don’t go near that part of the building. When I go up to school now, if I’m doing something, I’ll do it in the playground or I do it in the new gym.”

Jamie Murray added: “It’s nice that, after all the negative publicity the town got after what happened so many years ago, that it’s able to be shown in a positive light now. I guess that’s a testament to the success that Andy’s had.”