Two British soldiers killed in crash on unfinished motorway

TWO BRITISH soldiers were killed and another two injured when their rented car burst into flames after a head-on collision with a parked asphalt spreader on Sunday.

The accident happened at around 2 am on an unfinished section of the Limassol to Paphos highway near Pissouri.

"When police arrived we found two badly burnt bodies and two men who were injured. It’s tragic," a police spokesman said.

The names of the two dead, who are both under 25, had not been released yesterday as their bodies had not been formally identified.

British base authorities yesterday named the injured soldiers as Michael James Byron and Peter Andrew Hawkins, both 21.

The conditions of the two injured soldiers – who had been rushed to Limassol hospital in a critical state on Sunday – were yesterday described as serious but out of danger.

A bases spokesman said Hawkins had undergone stomach surgery while Byron had a fractured tibia.

A bases doctor visited the injured men at Limassol hospital yesterday, to liaise with doctors there.

The spokesman said it was not clear how the four soldiers had strayed onto the unfinished road.

"As a close knit family regiment we are devastated by this tragedy," Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Sharpe, Commanding officer of the 2nd Cheshire Regiment based at Dhekelia.

The four soldiers in the accident had only arrived on the island three days before the crash.

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