Body of UK serviceman in mix-up

The MoD says the mix-up was sorted out before the funerals

A mix-up led to the remains of a UK serviceman killed in Afghanistan being returned in the wrong coffin, the Ministry of Defence has admitted.

It occurred after a Nimrod aircraft crashed near Kandahar in September - killing 12 airmen based at Kinloss in Moray, a soldier and a Marine.

There was a "regrettable incident" but the problem was sorted out before the men's funerals, the MoD insisted.

The Observer says one mother considered cancelling her son's funeral.

The men's bodies were returned home in a ceremony at Kinloss in north-east Scotland.

But it has emerged that at least one victim's remains had ended up in the coffin of another.

Trish Knight's son Ben, 25, was among those killed. She said: "We don't know how many mistakes were made over this but body parts were found in a wrong coffin and there may well have been more parts mixed up.

"We just thought: 'How can we go ahead if we are not sure if it's Ben's body in there or maybe somebody else's?'"