Remains of First World War soldiers given military burial in Flanders

A regimental hat and a poppy wreath are placed on the coffin of an unidentified British soldier (Olivier Matthys/AP)

British and Canadian authorities have given seven soldiers killed more than a century ago in the First World War a full military burial after their remains were discovered during a gas pipeline construction near Ypres, Belgium.

The soldiers were found in two separate burial sites near the Belgian town at the heart of Flanders Fields, where hundreds of thousands perished between 1914 to 1918.