More than 1,000 people have lined the streets of Wootton Bassett in Wiltshire to greet the bodies of three soldiers killed in Afghanistan - as it emerged the country's combat death toll had overtaken hostile-fire fatalities in Iraq.

The bodies of Lance Corporal Nigel Moffett, 28, Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher, 19, and Corporal Stephen Bolger were flown into RAF Lyneham on Friday.

After a repatriation ceremony, hearses carrying their coffins passed along the high street of nearby Wootton Bassett, which is lined with mourners at every repatriation.

Crowds have appeared spontaneously along the route to pay their respects since the bodies of British service personnel started being brought home through RAF Lyneham in 2007.

Campaigners want to rename the three-mile repatriation route to Wootton The Highway of Heroes.

L/Cpl Moffett, of the Light Dragoons, from Belfast, and Cpl Bolger, of 1 Para, whose home town and age have not been disclosed, died while on an operation in Musa Qala in Helmand province on Saturday.

On Tuesday, Rifleman Cyrus Thatcher, 19, became the 137th serviceman to die in hostile fire in Afghanistan.

Deaths at enemy hands in Iraq, where Britain's combat involvement ended last month, remain at 136.

Rifleman Thatcher, of 2nd Battalion The Rifles, from Caversham in Reading, Berkshire, was killed on patrol near Gereshk in Helmand.

Mayor of Wootton Bassett Steve Bucknell, who was in the crowd, estimated that there were more than 1,000 people watching the cortege.