Two British soldiers burned to death in car collision

Two British soldiers serving in Cyprus were burned to death in their car when it hit a parked vehicle and caught fire Sunday, police said.

Two British soldiers serving in Cyprus were burned to death in their car when it hit a parked vehicle and caught fire Sunday, police said.

The accident occurred in a closed section of the new Limassol-Paphos highway in western Cyprus when the soldiers' car hit a parked Tarmac-laying vehicle, said a police statement.

Two other soldiers in the car were injured, the statement said. One underwent surgery and was in intensive care, it was understood.

The dead men, from the Cheshire Regiment, were trapped in the wreckage of the car, a private vehicle, the statement added. It gave no other details.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said there was "some difficulty" in identifying the soldiers because of the intensity of the fire.

The identities of the victims are being withheld as their next of kin have not yet been informed.

The accident happened only a few miles from the British base of Episkopi, one of two such bases on the island.