Warminster residents turn out in honour of soldiers

Two hundred and fifty soldiers from 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment have paraded through Warminster ahead of their nine-month deployment to Afghanistan.

Hundreds of residents of the town lined the streets waving Union Jack flags, and cheered and applauded as the soldiers marched past.

Six red roses were thrown into the road in honour of six British soldiers who died in a blast in Helmand province in Afghanistan ten days ago. Five of them were from the 3rd Battalion.

The Duke of York, Prince Andrew - who is the colonel-in-chief of the Yorkshire Regiment - joined the soldiers and local dignitaries for a service at The Minster Church of St Denys.

It began with the names of the dead men being read out and the playing of the Last Post.

Corporal Jake Hartley, 20, Private Anthony Frampton, 20, Private Christopher Kershaw, 19, Private Daniel Wade, 20, and Private Daniel Wilford, 21, all of 3rd Battalion the Yorkshire Regiment, died alongside Sergeant Nigel Coupe, 33, of 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster's Regiment when a Taliban roadside bomb destroyed their Warrior armoured vehicle in Helmand province on March 6.

It became the deadliest single enemy attack on UK forces in Afghanistan since 2001.

The soldiers, who had only been in Afghanistan for a few weeks, were hit by the blast about 25 miles north of the capital of Helmand, Lashkar Gah.