The bodies of two soldiers based in Essex have been flown home from Iraq.

A plane carrying the coffins of Sapper Luke Allsopp, 24, and Staff Sergeant Simon Cullingworth, 36, landed at RAF Brize Norton at noon.

Following the return of the British soldier's bodies, a repatriation ceremony was held at the Oxfordshire base.

Sapper Allsopp, from north London and Sgt Cullingworth, from Essex, were both members of the 33 (EOD) Engineer Regiment a specialist bomb disposal unit of the Royal Engineers based in Wimbish.

An investigation is being carried out into the soldiers' deaths.

The two men disappeared in the first days of the war and their bodies were discovered in shallow graves near the southern Iraq city of Basra.

Published Friday, April 25, 2003