Egypt hotel responds to fresh development in Burnley couple's death investigation

John and Susan Cooper died while on holiday with their daughter and family on Tuesday, August 21st, at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in Hurghada, Egypt.

In an official statement, the Egyptian general prosecutor said post-mortem examinations showed E. coli bacteria was the cause of the death, but the British Home Office has now directed that post-mortem examinations should now be carried out in this country.

A spokesman for the hotel released the following statement today.

"We understand the Public Prosecutor’s report states that E.coli bacteria was responsible for the tragic death of Mr Cooper and is also likely to have caused the tragic death of Mrs Cooper.

"We will continue to work closely with the Egyptian authorities and experts to establish how this could have happened, given that there are a number of independent reports that have raised the issue of where and how the E.coli could have been ingested.

"We have the utmost sympathy for the Cooper family and will do everything we can to assist in any further ongoing investigations and in the forthcoming inquest."

The couple's daughter, Kelly Ormerod, told the BBC she believes the claims of E. coli were "absolute rubbish". She said she did not believe the symptoms her parents showed were consistent with E. coli infection.

Susan worked at the Burnley branch of Thomas Cook travel agents and husband John was a well-known builder in the area and owned his own company, Safe As Houses.

On direction from the Home Office, a second post-mortem will now take place in Britain.