A ROYAL Marine spoke last night of his brush with death when the Land Rover he was travelling in was blown up by a mine in Afghanistan.

Marine Matthew "Buster" Brown, 23, escaped with a bloody nose when the vehicle - known as a WMIK (weapons mounted installation kit) - in which he was patrolling with two colleagues, was blown to pieces.

The Marines were close to the centre of the district of Sangin, in Helmand Province, when the anti-tank land mine went off.

Amazingly, the men, from Whiskey Company, 45 Commando, based at Arbroath, in Scotland, suffered only minor injuries and shock.

But if they had been in a different vehicle, they might not have been so lucky, because the WMIK is designed to protect its occupants from such attacks.

During a blast, its engine block and front axle absorb most of the energy and shear off from the rest of the vehicle.

Marine Brown, from Sinnington, near Pickering, North Yorkshire, suffered no more than a bloody nose.

Fellow Marine Simon Price, from Wigan, Lancashire, suffered from shock and their colleague, Corporal Karl Lockhart, from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, suffered a fractured cheekbone and eye socket.

The blast happened a month before the trio finish their tour of duty in Afghanistan.

"As we were driving along I felt a massive blast, " said Marine Brown. "I didn't hear anything. I didn't know a massive explosion had gone off. I was knocked unconscious for a few minutes and then I was shaken awake.

"My nose was throbbing and I thought it was broken, but it was just bleeding. As we looked around, we saw the damage it had done - the engine block was ten to 15 metres in front of us."

After the incident, the men were rescued by their troop sergeant. The Marines then dropped a 500lb bomb on the remains of the Land Rover and fired a Javeline missile at it.

"I think I was lucky, to be honest," said Marine Brown. "The WMIK we were driving is a newer version of the one we had originally. It has more safety features and is designed to shear off when a blast occurs."

Marine Brown is sent three copies of The Northern Echo each week as part of care packages put together by his mother, Gillian.