Two soldiers trying out for roles in the special forces division of the British Army have reportedly been marched to their deaths in sweltering heat in the mountains of Wales.
A view of the Brecon Beacons, used by the army to put regular and special forces soldiers through their paces.
The soldiers from the UK's Territorial Army were among six men who were admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion in the Brecon Beacons mountain range on Saturday, The Guardian reports. The men were trying for a place in the army's celebrated Special Air Service unit and were forced to complete long runs in full body, carrying weapons and battlefield equipment weighing more than 45kg as the temperature soared past 30 degrees.
As some of the men began to succumb to the rigorous physical demands of the selection course an RAF Sea King helicopter was deployed, along with a civilian air ambulance, to airlift the victims to a hospital at Merthyr Tydfil. The men's deaths are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence and local police. A Defense official said the military has health and safety measures in place but "that must be balanced against the fact we are training people to go into extremely challenging environments". "We don’t go out of our way to kill people but we have to put them in tough situations because that is what they will be facing on operations," he said. It is not the first time a man has died trying to crack Britain's elite special forces.
In January Captain Rob Carnegie was found dead on a mountain top in the Brecon Beacons. He was undertaking a 64 mile hike in near freezing conditions as part of the SAS selection course when he collapsed. In 2011 a 26-year-old solider collapsed and died at the end of a 29km march while trying out for the SAS.
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A view of the Brecon Beacons, used by the army to put regular and special forces soldiers through their paces.
The soldiers from the UK's Territorial Army were among six men who were admitted to hospital for heat exhaustion in the Brecon Beacons mountain range on Saturday, The Guardian reports. The men were trying for a place in the army's celebrated Special Air Service unit and were forced to complete long runs in full body, carrying weapons and battlefield equipment weighing more than 45kg as the temperature soared past 30 degrees.
As some of the men began to succumb to the rigorous physical demands of the selection course an RAF Sea King helicopter was deployed, along with a civilian air ambulance, to airlift the victims to a hospital at Merthyr Tydfil. The men's deaths are being investigated by the Ministry of Defence and local police. A Defense official said the military has health and safety measures in place but "that must be balanced against the fact we are training people to go into extremely challenging environments". "We don’t go out of our way to kill people but we have to put them in tough situations because that is what they will be facing on operations," he said. It is not the first time a man has died trying to crack Britain's elite special forces.
In January Captain Rob Carnegie was found dead on a mountain top in the Brecon Beacons. He was undertaking a 64 mile hike in near freezing conditions as part of the SAS selection course when he collapsed. In 2011 a 26-year-old solider collapsed and died at the end of a 29km march while trying out for the SAS.
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