Published: Friday, 5th June, 2009 12:22pm

Inquest hears of fellow soldiers' bravery

AN inquest into the death of Marine Alec Lucas this week heard how his colleagues risked their own lives in a bid to save him.

Wednesday"s hearing at Wiltshire Coroner"s Court in Trowbridge was given the facts surrounding the 24-year-old father"s murder in Afghanistan last November.

Alec from Peebles was part of a mission providing cover for bomb disposal experts when a buried device exploded as he stood on it.

The court heard how fellow Marines from the 45 Commando dragged their fatally wounded colleague to safety despite being under heavy gunfire.

Major Nigel Somerville, commanding officer of V Company, said: 'An extremely brave team realised the severity of the situation and, under extreme risk to themselves, picked up Al, having made a stretcher, and ran across the open ground.

'They had to stop on open ground, under fire, to continue medical assistance.

'It was extremely brave for them to do that.'

Fellow marines told the coroner how they were on a mission at Taliban mines near Kajaki, in Helmand Province.

Marine Lucas" section, based in Arbroath, had just crossed the open ground from one compound to another on a cleared trail when the 24-year-old went back outside to direct the next section of men.

Corporal Matt Darcy, the leader of the section, was ahead of him in the compound.

He said: 'We heard the explosion and saw a big plume of smoke.

'We didn"t know what it was and gave it a few seconds to make sure it wasn"t incoming fire.

'We called out to Al but we didn"t hear back.'

When his colleagues went to the compound entrance they saw Alec lying on his back with leg wounds and an injury to his left arm.

He added: 'There were moans. His eyes opened once and then closed. I was calling to him but there was no response.

'His pulse was low and shallow. 'He was deteriorating and I believed that we couldn"t do a lot for him there and then. What needed to be done was for Al to be taken away for a higher level of medical attention so that was the decision I took.

'The decision was escalating and they (the Taliban) believed we had a casualty and the information we got was they were going to wait for the stretcher party to arrive before they started firing but it was slightly before that they did."

No other servicemen actually witnessed the blast.

Alec Lucas was airtlifted to a helicopter landing site and loaded onto a Chinook to be flown to Camp Bastion but he was pronounced dead during the flight.

Royal Military Police Officers, carrying out a murder investigation, have prepared a file for use by the Afghan authorities if they ever arrest anybody for the killing.

David Ridley, the coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, had not recorded his verdict on Alec's death by the time we went to print.