BOMB blast survivor Scott Cooper has vowed to return to Afghanistan to seek revenge after losing a leg.

The 19-year-old soldier had been in the country just one month when he stepped on an improvised explosive device (IED), losing his right leg below the knee.

A helicopter was scrambled, and within 24 hours he was flown back to the UK, where medics told him he was lucky to be alive.

Now, as he begins a promising recovery with a prosthetic limb, Guardsman Cooper, of Walker, Newcastle, says he relishes the chance to return to Helmand Province.

And he admitted revenge is on his mind as he contemplates facing the Taliban militias once more.

He said: “I wish I was still out there with the lads. I’m going to stay in the Army for a bit, we’ll see how long. I want to go back on the next tour, which could be in 2013.

“I’ll never be able to find the guys who did this to me – not even the best forensic team in the world could do that – but I’ll take revenge on others.”

It was on November 15, last year, when the Coldstream Guardsman triggered the IED while hunting insurgents near the village of Babaji, in Helmand.

Recalling the moment, the former Benfield School pupil said: “I took two steps forward and – boom. I landed on my back. I knew exactly what had happened.

“I didn’t want to look because I was dreading what I might see. Then I was kind of relieved because I felt and my leg was still there.

“Then I saw the other one had been blown clean off.”

He was operated on at Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital and is now at a military rehabilitation centre in Surrey.

The Prince of Wales paid tribute to his bravery in a bedside visit in Birmingham.