Photographer recalls bomb blast

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A photographer who was seriously injured in an Afghanistan blast which killed his Sunday Mirror colleague has recalled the moment the bomb exploded.

Phil Coburn, 43, also paid tribute to his friend Rupert Hamer as "one of the finest reporters of his generation".

Speaking to the paper, Mr Coburn said it had been routine up until the blast, with "joshing and joking" inside the US armoured vehicle.

Mr Coburn is being treated in Selly Oak Hospital alongside wounded soldiers.

The pair were embedded with the US Marines and travelling in an MRAP (mine resistant ambush protected) vehicle when an improvised explosive device (IED) detonated as they passed over it.

The Sunday Mirror reported the "virtually indestructible" vehicle was the last in the convoy.

That was the final sound - laughter Phil Coburn <a class="" href="/2/hi/uk_news/8452516.stm">Reporter's body flown back to UK</a>

A US marine was also killed in the blast, and a further four marines seriously injured.

Mr Hamer, who was married with three young children, is the first British journalist to be killed in Afghanistan.

The 39-year-old had worked for the Sunday Mirror for 12 years, taking on the defence correspondent role in 2004.

'Best friend'

Mr Coburn, who is in the military wing of the Birmingham hospital, has had his right foot amputated above the ankle, the paper said.

Rupert Hamer set off for a month-long assignment on New Year's Eve

He also has a spinal fracture and the bones in his lower left leg and foot have been shattered.

The father-of-one, from Larne in County Antrim, told the Sunday Mirror he could remember <a class="inlineText" href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/01/17/laughter-then-a-huge-explosion-115875-21973195/">"exactly how the explosion happened".</a>

"Inside the vehicle there was joshing and joking, and at the centre of it, typically was Rupert, and that was the final sound - laughter," he said.

"I only hope those who loved him take some small comfort in knowing he was happy, doing the job he loved."

He described the explosion on 9 January in Helmand province as "like some surreal film in slow motion".

He can remember a soldier lifting him by the shoulders and he saw Mr Hamer "lying nearby".

Paying tribute to the journalist who was at his side through many dangerous assignments, Mr Coburn said he had lost "his best friend".

"He was courageous, he was determined, he was second to none... I truly believe that with the death of Rupert Hamer we have lost one of the finest reporters of his generation," he said.