AN elderly West Somerset woman was strangled to death when her apron string became tangled on a bedside lamp, an inquest heard.

Senior Somerset Coroner Samantha Marsh said 94-year-old Elizabeth Holdsworth was blind and could not see to untangle the apron string.

Mrs Holdsworth, a retired physiotherapist, was found dead in her flat in the former Mount Royal Hotel, in Weirfield Road, Minehead, on the morning of February 10 this year.

Mrs Marsh said the apron had become entangled in Mrs Holdsworth’s medical grade lamp and she was unable to rescue herself and died as a result of suspension.

The coroner, sitting in the Old Municipal Buildings, Taunton, concluded the death of County Durham-born Mrs Holdsworth was accidental.