SOLDIERS expressed “disbelief” over the lightly-armoured vehicles they were given ahead of an explosion which caused the first female casualty in Afghanistan and killed three of her comrades, an inquest heard yesterday.

Burscough-born Corporal Sarah Bryant, 26, of the Intelligence Corps, and Territorial Army special forces soldiers 31-year-old Private Paul Stout, from Woolton, Corporal Sean Robert Reeve, 28, of the Royal Signals, and Lance Corporal Richard Larkin, 39, died in the blast east of Lashkar Gah on June 17, 2008.

The back wheel of their Snatch Land Rover hit a pressure-plated IED (improvised explosive device) hidden in a ditch.

A Staff Sergeant, known as Soldier O, told Wiltshire Coroner’s Court: “The use of a Snatch Land Rover was met with disbelief from virtually everybody.

“I questioned the vehicle’s suitability to be used in that environment with regard to the type of work we would be doing mentoring the Afghan National Police (ANP) and conducting operations with the ANP.

“During the pre-deployment training, it was an aspiration of our chain of command to find more suitable vehicles such as WMIKs, the Vector vehicle, an armoured vehicle, and other vehicles I have no knowledge of.

“They were trying to secure us alternative vehicles because I believe that the chain of command shared our views.”

He added: “The British Army works on the fact sometimes you can’t access all the best equipment available. You need to adapt and make do with the best you have got, which is credible but not always right. You get on with the task at hand and that was certainly a view that I shared in pre-deployment training.”

The soldier, who was commanding two groups of Snatch Land Rovers – known as multiples – also said they had not been trained in using metal detectors back in the UK due to an equipment shortage.

“It was my belief there was not only a theatre-wide shortage of that equipment, but if it was theatre-wide, it would certainly be back at home as well,” he said.