An inquest heard last week that two soldiers died after an explosion in a tank during an exercise at the Castlemartin firing range.

Corporals - twenty-seven-year-old Matthew Hatfield and theirty-one-year-old Darren Neilson from the Royal Tank Regiment died after the incident on June 14.

The provisional cause of death for Cpl Hatfield was ‘burns’, while Cpl Neilson suffered a cardiac arrest as a result of blast-related injuries, the Birmingham hearing was told.

Two other soldiers were also injured in the blast, with one still in a serious condition in hospital, whilst the other has been discharged from hospital.

Dyfed-Powys Police Det Ch Insp Ross Evans told Louise Hunt, senior coroner for Birmingham and Solihull at the inquest on June 30, what happened after emergency services were called to an explosion on the range.

He said it was thought Cpl Neilson, of Preston, Lancashire, was the tank commander and ‘we believe positioned within the turret’ at the time of the blast.

Cpl Hatfield, from Amesbury, Wiltshire, was the armoured vehicle’s operator and was ‘loading the ammunition in the tank’.

He was taken to Morriston Hospital in Swansea, but the father-of-one who was engaged to be married died the following day.

His colleague, a married father with a young daughter, was taken to the University Hospital Wales in Cardiff, but also died on June 15.

Ms Hunt offered her condolences to the soldiers’ families, who were present at the hearing, and told them a pre-inquest review would take place in February 2018.

She said a full inquest lasting up to three weeks would be held in Solihull in July 2018.

A police-led joint investigation with the Health and Safety Executive and a separate Ministry of Defence service inquiry are currently under way.