Soldier crushed in port accident

Corporal Rees leaves a wife and two children

A soldier has been crushed to death while moving army vehicles ready for transportation to Iraq.

Corporal Thomas Eirian Rees, 32, was trapped between two armoured personnel carriers as he unloaded them from a low-loader at Teesport, Middlesbrough, at 1700 BST on Thursday.

Corporal Rees - who was known as Eirian - was a member of 1 The King's Regiment, based at Catterick, North Yorkshire, and was from Pembrey, near Llanelli.

He leaves a wife, Andrea, and children Luke, seven, and Jessica, four.

An investigation into the incident is being carried out by Cleveland Police, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the Ministry of Defence.

Desert Rats

An army spokesman said Corporal Rees was the ground commander of a team dealing with the transportation of the vehicles to the Gulf ahead of the deployment of the regiment.

The regiment - part of 19 Mechanized Brigade - is to be deployed as a follow up force to replace the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Desert Rats.

The 4,500 soldiers are due to follow their equipment out to the Gulf at the beginning of July.

The spokesman said: "The accident happened as army vehicles were being off-loaded from low-loaders in readiness for deployment to Iraq.

"As a result Corporal Thomas Rees died. He was hit by a vehicle as it was being off-loaded."

The spokesman added that such movements of vehicles happened two or three times a year and were not unusual.

Corporal Rees was taken to Middlesbrough General Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

A spokesman for Cleveland Police said: "An investigation launched yesterday lunchtime is ongoing involving the death of a soldier at Teesport."