Police investigate another army death

Police and the Ministry of Defence are investigating the second barracks death in a week after a young black soldier died from head injuries.

The 24-year-old private, from Fiji, was found slumped in a hallway at Normandy Barracks in Leconfield, East Yorkshire, on Saturday night.

Attempts to revive him failed and he was taken to Hull Royal Infirmary, where he died at 1.30am yesterday. A post-mortem examination revealed a serious injury to the back of his head. Police said there were no other injuries, and are trying to assess whether he fell and hit his head.

The soldier was apparently drinking with friends at the joint MoD driving training school at the barracks until he left at about 9pm.

Police said it was unclear what happened between then and just after midnight, when two soldiers found him in the hall of an accommodation block and raised the alarm.

Police are waiting for the results of toxicology tests from the post-mortem examination, which would show the level of drink or drugs in his blood.

The death came a week after a 22-year-old female soldier, Alison Croft, was found hanging from a wardrobe door at Dalton barracks in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, and amid renewed scrutiny of four deaths at the Deepcut barracks in Surrey, which the army initially claimed were suicides.

MoD police are looking into allegations that Private Croft, a chef, had been bullied by her fellow soldiers.