A 14-year-old boy lay dying for 30 minutes at an RAF Air Cadet training camp at Bramley before any supervisors arrived to provide help, an inquest has heard.

David Efemena died last March on a training exercise at the Bramley defence training estate after falling seriously ill while in his tent at night.

A post-mortem examination revealed that he died from a "congenital heart anomaly", Walthamstow Coroner's Court heard.

After convincing his parents to allow him to join the Air Cadets, David set off for the weekend trip on March 20.

Another cadet, who cannot be named for legal reasons, described being awoken around 10 times on Saturday night by "strange, gargling or coughing" noises coming from David, who was also shaking violently.

The teenager said he initially thought this was just snoring and that David was shivering in the cold of their basic bivouac camp.

Assistant deputy coroner Nadia Persaud asked the witness: "Did you hear David during the night?"

He replied: "Not really, other than when he made the noises. That is when I woke up and tried to wake him to see what was wrong. That happened a few times."

The witness said that he was awoken by a senior cadet for sentry at around 5am, having gone to bed at around midnight.

Unable to rouse David, senior cadet Craig Barnett set about getting help.

The youngster said: "When we noticed something was wrong, we began waking everybody up. We pulled off the bivvy and David started shaking. So we put another sleeping bag on top of him to try and keep him warm."

Ms Persaud asked: "Whilst you were with David for 30 minutes, were you by yourself?" and, crying, the witness replied: "I'm not sure."

Mr Barnett, who was 18 at the time, was also asked about how long it was until supervisors arrived.

He said: "I got on my radio and started moving about to see if I could get a bit of signal but I thought that because it was still quite early the staff may still be asleep, so that is why I couldn't get in touch with them straight away, and because the area we were in had quite a lot of trees that could interfere with the signal ... So I would say it could be around half an hour before I finally reached the staff."

He added that when he eventually made contact, the supervisors said they would be there "as soon as they could".

It was another 10 minutes before they were able to get to the scene from their training centre base, the inquest heard.

The incident came after an intense day of training which involved an exercise of David and his team mates "hunting" escapees while carrying "fairly heavy" packs.

Both witnesses told the inquest that when they arrived at camp on Friday, they were given a talk and told to use walkie talkies to get in touch with supervisors in case of an emergency.

The inquest also heard from David's dad, Felix Dibie, who said his son was "a fit and active" teenager who had never complained of any heart pain.

He joined the air cadets to follow his dreams of becoming an aeronautical engineer, the inquest heard.

Mr Dibie broke down in tears as he described how he was awoken by a phone call from a doctor on Sunday morning.

He said: "Immediately I said 'who is speaking?' he said 'oh I am a doctor from so and so hospital'.

"So I screamed and I jumped up from the bed. I said 'what is happening?' then he said 'David has fallen ill'."

Mr Dibie demanded to know why police officers were being sent to take him to Basingstoke hospital from his home in Elm Park, east London, but was told by them that "nothing" had happened.

Mr Dibie said: "The journey took so long because I was anxious. Finally we got there in about three hours or so, I was expecting to see David alive."

Adding that on arrival he saw three police officers and a woman among them, Mr Dibie said: "She said 'I am sorry your son did not make it'. I couldn't believe it. I screamed - I must've knocked something down."

The court heard that when he asked why they had been unable to save his son, the doctor replied that David was already dead when he arrived at the hospital.

In the months before the fateful trip, David's PE teacher raised concerns about his falling fitness levels and his parents took him to hospital.

Blood tests revealed he had "sickle cell traits", but a consultant advised the family that it was not significant and that the teenager could carry on with his active lifestyle which included athletics and regularly playing rugby.

Paying tribute to his son, Mr Dibie said: "He was a lovely boy. All around he was a son that you were proud of."

The inquest continues.