Inquests into the deaths of a British couple at a hotel in Egypt on a Thomas Cook holiday have been opened and adjourned.
John and Susan Cooper, from Burnley, Lancashire, died on August 21 after becoming suddenly ill while staying at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.
The authorities in Egypt have said their forensic examinations showed the deaths were linked to E.coli bacteria.
The findings have been disputed by the couple’s daughter, Kelly Ormerod.
Ormerod, 40, said she was preparing for their funerals on Wednesday in their home town of Burnley. Outside Preston Coroner’s Court, she said: “All I would like to say is thank you very much for all the support I have received.
“At the moment now I have got to go home and prepare for a funeral tomorrow.
“If you would kindly leave me be, leave my family be, and let us grieve and get the grieving process on the way, and I am prepared to speak at a later date.”
The Egyptian authorities said their examinations showed Mr Cooper, 69, suffered acute intestinal dysentery caused by E.coli and Mrs Cooper, a 63-year-old Thomas Cook employee, suffered a complication linked to infection, likely to have been caused by E.coli.
Ormerod, who was on holiday with her parents and her own three children at the time, has said E.coli does not explain the rapid nature of her mother and father’s sudden death.
The family have said they hope the coroner’s investigation will establish the “true cause” of death.
Thomas Cook’s own tests identified a high level of E.coli at the hotel, which would “explain the raised level of illness reported among guests”.
Thomas Cook moved 300 guests out of the hotel 24 hours after the couple died as a precaution.
Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Blackburn with Darwen, said through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office he would be requesting all relevant reports and documentation from a long list of public bodies in Egypt and from Thomas Cook.
But he warned that requests to foreign countries “can take months, even years”.
The inquests were adjourned until a date to be fixed.