A CEREMONY has been held to mark the 40th anniversary of a coach bomb which claimed the life of a Tyldesley teenager.

One of the 12 killed when a bomb hidden in the luggage compartment of a coach carrying off-duty servicemen detonated on the M62 in Yorkshire was Leslie David Walsh.

The 17-year-old from Tyldesley was travelling on the coach, which had been commissioned to carry British Army and Royal Air Force personnel on leave with their families to and from the bases at Catterick and Darlington due to strike action on the trains.

Leslie was training to be a combat signalman and lived with his parents John and Doris in Shuttle Street before the 25lb bomb exploded on February 4, 1974, injuring more than 50 people.

His sister Pat Noble attended the ceremony, at the memorial stone on Hartshead Moor on Sunday, along with other families and representatives from the armed forces.

She said: "It was a very sombre affair but it is nice for everyone to get together even if it is only once a year. It was very well attended as well with it being the 40th anniversary."

The IRA has long been suspected of planning the attack.

A separate memorial to Leslie is located in Tyldesley cemetery.