A woman described seeing two men setting fire to a van minutes after landlord Mohammed Raja was shot to death.

Margaret Perry told the Old Bailey yesterday that from her bathroom at Gainsborough Terrace, Sutton, Greater London, she heard an explosion on July 2, 1999.

She said she looked out to see two men setting fire to a white van.

The prosecution alleges these were David Croke and Robert Knapp, who it says were hitmen paid by millionaire property tycoon Nicholas Hoogstraten to murder property landlord Mr Raja.

Mrs Perry told the court: "There was smoke and flames coming out of the vehicle.

"They were throwing something on to the van to set fire to it. I was at the top of the house so I couldn't see exactly what they had.

"I shouted to them 'What are you doing?' or words to that effect.

"They turned round and looked up at me and with that they threw what they had in their hands into the van and ran away."

Mrs Perry described the men she saw as aged about 35 and 19.

Croke, 59, of Bolney Road, Moulsecoomb, Brighton, and 53-year-old Knapp, of Convent Street, Abbeyfeale, County Limerick, deny murder. Hoogstraten, 57, of Framfield, near Uckfield, denies murder and conspiracy to murder Mr Raja.

On day four of the trial, the court also heard evidence from an ambulance technician who arrived at Mr Raja's home at Mulgrave Road, Sutton, moments after he was killed by two men posing as gardeners, one carrying a garden fork and the other a sawn-off shot gun.

In a statement, the ambulanceman said he inspected the body of Mr Raja, who was lying in his TV room with a towel covering his face.

He said: "I took the towel off from his face and as I did so I saw the man only had one eye. Where his left eye would of been there was a black crater.

"His mouth and lip area were all intact. This also applied to his nose and the right side of his face."

The ambulance man pronounced Mr Raja dead at the scene.

Forensics experts Dr Christopher Price told the hearing a trail of blood led from Mr Raja's front door to where his body was found.

The trial continues on Monday.