The body of a British chef who died fighting so-called Islamic State militants arrived back at Heathrow Airport to a hero’s welcome.
Ryan Lock, who died fighting alongside Kurdish forces after her travelled to Syria last year, was honoured by dozens of people as his body was repatriated to the UK.
Loved ones and members of the Kurdish community held roses and framed pictures of the 20-year-old on Saturday.
Lock, from Chichester, West Sussex, died in an offensive by anti-IS forces in a bid to retake the northern city of Raqqa, considered to be the terrorist group’s de facto capital.
The People’s Defence Units (YPG), a Kurdish military force, told Lock’s family he died along with other fighters last December 21.
It later emerged that Lock killed himself to avoid falling captive to IS and being held as a propaganda tool.
Lock, who had no previous military experience, joined Kurdish militia after telling his family he was going on holiday to Turkey in August.
A military ceremony attended by dozens of pro-Kurdish fighters, representatives from political parties and NGOs was held in Rojava last month.
Photographs of the ceremony showed a coffin displaying a photograph of Lock, who went to school in Havant, Hampshire, and a Union flag surrounded by armed militia.
As the body of Lock arrived in the UK, tributes were paid to him.
Supporters of the YPJ female-fighting force said his “memory will forever live on in our struggle for the freedom of Syria and our hope for change in the whole world”.
And on Twitter, one wrote: “Rest in paradise Ryan Lock. You will remain a hero in Kurdish history.”
YPG general command member Mihyedin Xirki had previously said Lock was a “martyr” who died “putting up a brave fight”.
The British Foreign and Commonwealth Office advises against all travel to Syria. Lock was the third British man to die fighting IS with the Kurds in Syria.
Dean Evans, 22, a dairy farmer from Reading, Berkshire, died in the city of Manbij in July last year and former Royal Marine Konstandinos Erik Scurfield, 25, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire, died in the northern village of Tel Khuzela in March 2015.