HUNDREDS of people lined the streets to pay their respects to the body of a Liverpool soldier killed by a blast in Afghanistan.

The body of Lance Corporal Peter Eustace, 25, was brought back to the UK yesterday afternoon.

L/Cpl Eustace was repatriated with Lieutenant David Boyce, 25; Lance Corporal Richard Scanlon, 31; and Private Thomas Lake, 29, who were all killed in explosions last week.

L/Cpl Eustace, from 2nd Battalion The Rifles, died on patrol on November 16 in the Nahr-e Saraj area of Helmand province.

The former painter and decorator was killed by an improvised explosive device (IED) while conducting a joint patrol with his company and the Afghan National Army.

L/Cpl Eustace’s body was flown to RAF Brize Norton, in Oxfordshire.

A private ceremony was held for the soldiers’ families at a purpose-built repatriation centre on the airbase before the cortege slowly made its way through the village of Carterton.

On hearing the news of his death, L/Cpl Eustace’s friends and family gathered to support his mother, Carol, at her home in Maley Close, Dingle.