Crowds in silent tribute to fallen soldiers

Crowds stood in the rain to pay silent tribute to three soldiers killed in separate incidents in Afghanistan as their bodies were returned to British soil on Tuesday.

Rifleman Daniel Holkham, 19, Lance Corporal of Horse Jonathan Woodgate, 26, and Serjeant Steven Campbell, 30, were all killed in Helmand Province this month.

A C-17 Globemaster transport plane emerged through the grey, rainswept sky shortly after 11am as the three soldiers were repatriated to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire.

A private ceremony was held at the base's chapel before the coffins made the sombre journey through the nearby market town of Wootton Bassett in the afternoon.

Residents, shopkeepers and ex-servicemen followed recent tradition by lining the high street to pay their respects in a moment's silence as the soldiers' Union flag-draped coffins were driven through the town.

The funeral corteges paused while onlookers laid flowers on the hearses before continuing the journey to the coroner at Oxford's John Radcliffe Hospital.