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 | | Friday, 7 September, 2001, 16:19 GMT 17:19 UK Funeral of para killed in Macedonia  Six army colleagues carried Sapper Collins' coffin Several hundred mourners gathered at the funeral of paratrooper Ian Collins as the soldier was laid to rest on Friday with full military honours. Sapper Collins, of 9 Parachute Squadron Royal Engineers, was killed after a lump of concrete was thrown through the windscreen of his Land Rover in Macedonia. The 22-year-old was buried at his local church at St John the Baptist in Wales, near Sheffield, after a private ceremony attended by members of his regiment, family and friends. The six colleagues who served with Mr Collins in Macedonia acted as pallbearers. Piped lament The coffin, draped in a Union Jack with the soldier's maroon beret placed on top, was carried into the small Norman church.
Several senior army officers attended the 45 minute service including Major Kevin Stratford-Wright, acting commanding officer of 36 Engineer Regiment. Mr Collins, a single man from Kiveton Park, near Sheffield, died on 27 August, after the stone-throwing in the Western suburbs of the capital Skopje. His death came on the first day of the Nato weapons-gathering mission in Macedonia. 'Terrible waste' He was taken to the University Hospital in Skopje but died from his injuries. At the time his father Mr Kevin Collins described his son's death as a "terrible waste" and questioned the policy of sending British troops to Macedonia. His son's death is being investigated by British military police and the local authorities. An inquest was opened and adjourned in Rotherham on 5 September. | |
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