A Londonderry soldier was today back home with his family after a narrow escape in Afghanistan.

David Pepper (22) was among six men wounded when an improvised explosive device (IED) blew up last month when they were on patrol in Sangin — a Taliban stronghold in the north of Helmand Province.

The incident was the worst single attack on Royal Irish Regiment troops since their arrival in March.

Ranger Pepper suffered arm and back injuries but was discharged from hospital after a couple of days.

The 22-year-old from the Waterside was driving the vehicle hit by the bomb.

He told the North West Telegraph at the time: “I was driving and there was a guy on top with a machine gun and a couple of guys at the side — there were only a couple of others outside, there were only two in the vehicle.

“Whenever we were flown in (Camp Bastion) we rang home that night. My family didn’t believe that I was OK because every time you hear about someone being blown up, you think they have lost a limb or something worse.”

This is the first time Ranger Pepper, who served in Iraq in 2006 and is on his second tour of Afghanistan has been injured in action.

His mother said before he returned home on leave that she planned to give him “the biggest hug ever”.