Family and friends of a Royal Anglian soldier who was killed in action in Afghanistan gathered to see their loved one's body repatriated to the UK earlier today (Thursday).

Cpl Alex Guy, from the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment, was flown to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire alongside L/Cpl James Ashworth, from 1st Battalion, The Grenadier Guards, who was killed during the same week.

After the Union flag-draped coffins were carried from the aircraft, private services were held for the two men's grieving relatives, before the cortege left the base, escorted at walking pace as it approached the memorial garden in Carterton.

A party of Royal British Legion standard bearers from various regimental associations had also lined the street to pay their respects to the soldiers.

Cpl Guy, 37, from St Neots in Cambridgeshire, was killed while leading his section to assist a group of Afghan soldiers pinned down by enemy fire during an insurgent ambush in the Nad-e Ali District of Helmand Province last Friday.

L/Cpl Ashworth, 23, from Kettering in Northamptonshire, died two days earlier on June 13 after a grenade attack on his patrol to disrupt insurgent activity in the neighbouring district of Nahr-e Saraj.

The soldiers were the 418th and 419th members of UK forces to have died since operations in Afghanistan began in October 2001.