Police probing death at centre of public inquiry

Police are investigating the death of a child at the centre of a public inquiry in Northern Ireland.

Claire Roberts, nine, died in hospital in 1996 from a medical condition called hyponatraemia caused by a lack of sodium in the bloodstream.

A public inquiry was set up in 2004 to investigate the deaths of Claire, Adam Strain, Raychel Ferguson, Lucy Crawford and Conor Mitchell.

It said the children's deaths were avoidable and Northern Ireland's attorney general, John Larkin QC, ordered a new inquest into Claire's death.

A preliminary hearing at a coroner's court in Belfast on Wednesday was told a Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) investigation was at an early stage.

Another preliminary hearing was scheduled for September.