Wales floods: Margaret Hughes, 91, drowned inquest told

Margaret Hughes' body was found two days before her 92nd birthday

The 91-year-old woman who died during major flooding in north Wales drowned, an inquest has been told.

The body of Margaret Hughes was found by rescuers as they were evacuating people from flood-hit homes in St Asaph, Denbighshire, on Tuesday.

A post-mortem examination has given a provisional cause of her death as drowning.

She had been due to celebrate her 92nd birthday on Thursday.

John Gittins, the acting coroner for north Wales central, adjourned the inquest to a later date.

It comes as Denbighshire council says it wants to be as open as possible about why the newly built Glasdir housing estate in Ruthin was flooded along with other parts of north Wales.

In St Asaph, hundreds of properties were deluged when the River Elwy burst its banks overnight on Monday.

On Tuesday emergency services checking properties found the body of Mrs Hughes.

'So sad'

In a statement earlier this week, her daughter, four grandsons and grand-daughter paid tribute and said she came from an "old stock" of Welsh farmers.

They said she spent most of her early life working on farms, initially in Cerrig, near Corwen and then St Asaph where she had farmed with her husband for 18 years.

Neighbour Mandy Williams said: "She was looking forward to going shopping for her birthday.

"She always had a lovely word to say to people. She used to go to the coffee mornings every Wednesday.

"It's very tragic, just so sad."