A 25-year-old soldier from Bracknell who waded through a canal to rescue the victim of a suicide bombing is to be honoured by the Queen.

Private Lewis O’Connor, of 2nd Battalion the Parachute Regiment (2 PARA), 'single-handedly' rescued an injured Afghan man from the water after an attack in Kabul.

He will receive a Queen's Commendation Bravery for his efforts, which took place during Operation Pitting, where the British Army helped evacuate Afghans and British nationals from Kabul Airport as the Taliban seized control of the country.

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Lewis, who joined the army just 18 months ago, said: “When I arrived after the bomb it was chaos, but my training kicked in and my first thought was to prevent further injuries and save lives.

“I jumped straight into the canal to pull an injured person out and then searched in the canal for other casualties.

“We were warned that there could be another Improvised Explosive Device, but for me it felt like the right thing to do to ignore that risk to try and help people.

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"I don't see what I did as bravery, I just did my job; anyone else in our Company would have done the same. When I heard about the award, I was humbled. I am very proud to be recognised,” he said.

Lewis had only just completed his basic training when he was deployed on Operation Pitting, the largest humanitarian aid operation in over 70 years.

He is currently on Exercise Swift Response in North Macedonia. The high readiness training exercise will see a force of more than 3,000 soldiers from eight NATO countries working together under the command of the 16 Air Assault Brigade Combat Team to practice how they can respond to international crises.