A NORTH-EAST soldier - one of the youngest British servicemen to die in Iraq - was asleep when he was hit by a roadside bomb, an inquest heard yesterday.

Private Michael Tench, 18, of The Light Infantry, was returning to the British Army Base, in the north of Basra, during a Warrior patrol when the device exploded early on January 21.

Lance Corporal Rory Mackenzie, who was in the same vehicle as Private Tench and lost his leg in the blast, gave evidence at the first day of the inquest at Sunderland Coroner's Court.

He said: ''Before the bomb went off I had just woken up and I put my safety goggles on. I looked over at Michael and he was fast asleep and to the best of my knowledge he didn't wake up.

''It felt as if the Warrior reared up and I was lifted forward and flung back down. Michael was flung forward and his helmet struck my jaw, knocking me unconscious.''

Pte Tench, from Sunderland, and his colleagues were returning to their base at the Shaat Al Arab Hotel, in the north of Basra, after completing a patrol to counter indirect fire, the court heard.

When the bomb exploded, their Warrior Armoured Fighting Vehicle was turning off a metal road on to a carriageway which led back to the base.

Major Giles Woodhouse, the company commander, said: ''It was probably the most used vulnerable point for the entire city because everyone coming to our base location pretty much had to go through there.''

He told the court that in every 24-hour period, there were probably 20 to 30 military convoys passing through this point and that the device was probably already in place before the Warrior arrived. Corporal David Lovell, travelling in a separate vehicle in the patrol, recalled trying to help Pte Tench after the explosion.

''He was up to his neck in equipment,'' he said.

''I pulled some of that down and there was large entry wound around the chest area that had penetrated his armour.''

He said it was then that he realised the young soldier was dead.

Posted to Iraq in September 2006, Pte Tench, a former Hylton Red House School pupil, spent his first Christmas away from home doing the job he had longed for since the age of seven.

A popular and well-known teenager, he left behind father Terry, 45, mother Jan, 45, stepfather Derek, 44, brother Mark, 25, and sister, Stacey, 20.

He joined the Army two years ago, completing his training at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick, North Yorkshire, before being posted to the 2nd Battalion The Light Infantry.

About 800 people attended his funeral in February.