Wigan soldier makes Taleban gun discovery

A teenage soldier from Wigan unearthed a haul of Taleban weapons on only his second Army patrol.
Fusilier Daryl Toone discovered a loaded AK47 rifle, a pistol and a combat vest containing five magazines of ammunition while using a metal detector to search an Afghan compound in Northern Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

The 18-year-old, from Mosley Common, a soldier in A Company, Second Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, which recruits many of its soldiers from the North West, is currently on operations in the region

It was during one of his unit's regular foot patrols that Fus Toone, who is on his first operational tour of duty abroad with the Army, made the find.

He said: "I was pretty surprised when I found the hide. It gives you confidence in the kit and more importantly it means the bad guys have lost weapons they could have used against us and the locals."

A former pupil at Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley, Fus Toone attended the Army Foundation College in Harrogate after leaving school, before enlisting as a soldier aged 18.

Platoon commander, Lieutenant Chris Danby, who led the patrol, praised the teenager's work: "The weapons were undoubtedly for use against British soldiers and hidden in such a way that they could only be discovered using special metal detecting equipment.

"Fus Toone found the weapons even though they were well hidden and hard to find.