Fusilier Samuel Flint-Broughton: Funeral after Helmand bomb
A military funeral has taken place for a Blackpool soldier killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan.
Fusilier Samuel Flint-Broughton, 21, was one of three soldiers who died when the armoured vehicle he was travelling in was hit by an improvised explosive device on 30 April.
Six other soldiers were injured by the blast in Helmand province.
Hundreds of people lined the streets to see the funeral cortege make its way to St Chad's Church in Poulton-le-Fylde.
Many onlookers stepped forward to throw flowers and by the time the cortege stopped at the church, the hearse was covered.
Fusilier Flint's coffin was carried into the service with full military honours followed by his family.
Crowds who had gathered in the square outside the church stood in silence as the pallbearers made their way through the graveyard to the sound of a lone piper.
Fusilier Flint-Broughton had joined the Army in November 2011 and was on his first overseas deployment.
His family said he was "always the life and soul of the party, a real ladies' man, witty, funny, the real cheeky chappy".
"He was a loving son, the protective brother, courageous nephew, the caring uncle, the loyal grandson" who "loved his job and made his whole family and everyone that knew him very proud".
The Ministry of Defence said the soldiers were part of a patrol travelling along Route 611 between Forward Operating Base Ouellette and Patrol Base Lashkar Gah Durai in Nahr-e-Saraj when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device.
Cpl William Savage, of the Royal Highland Fusiliers, the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland, and Pte Robert Hetherington, of the 51st Highland, 7th Battalion, a Territorial Army member, also died in the explosion.