Two soldiers die in heat while training in Brecon Beacons
Two Territorial Army soldiers died and a third was left critically ill when they collapsed during gruelling military training on the hottest day of the year.
The unnamed soldiers were taking part in an exercise in the Welsh mountains where the Army carries out infantry training and selection for the elite SAS.
A total of six men collapsed during arduous physical exercise in the Brecon Beacons, in Powys, Mid Wales.
The men, aged from 19 to 25, were rescued from a hillside on Saturday afternoon by an RAF Sea King helicopter and taken to hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, but two could not be saved. A third soldier remains in hospital and the rest were released.
One defence source said the men “fell unconscious during strenuous physical exercise” close to Pen y Fan, which at 2,900 feet is the highest mountain in South Wales. All were in the Territorial Army and the heat was being investigated as a factor in the deaths.
A military source said the exercise the men were taking part in was "intense" and their deaths did not involve firearms or a fall.