THE badly-injured fiance of terrorist bomb victim Helyn Bennett was flown back to the North-East late last night.

Stephen Stables, 23, landed at Newcastle Airport aboard a specially-chartered air ambulance.

Stephen and Helyn, 21, who lived in Spennymoor, County Durham, were on a family holiday in the Turkish resort of Kusadasi, when a bomb exploded on a minibus taking them to the beach on Saturday, July 16.

The blast claimed five lives - including Miss Bennett's - and left Stephen in a critical condition.

He suffered severe shrapnel wounds, burns and a broken leg, and was in an intensive care unit at Ege University Hospital, Izmir, north of the Aegean resort.

Also on the plane was Michael Aspinall, the partner of Helyn's aunt, Toni Punshon, of Sherburn, near Durham City. He suffered a fractured skull, broken ribs and abdominal injuries.

Both men were transferred to hospitals in Newcastle and Darlington.

Other members of the family who were hurt - Helyn's brother Adam Megoran, 16, Ms Punshon, 46, and her son Sam, 14 - have returned.

Stephen and Helyn, who were to move into a new home together near her family in Spennymoor, had only taken the bus after a last-minute change of mind.

Miss Bennett's mother, Sharon Holdon, 41, and husband, Tom, had decided to go on a day trip instead with Helyn's aunt and uncle Lynn and Terry Debbage.

The bomb is thought to be the work of Kurdish PKK separatists.