GRIEVING relatives of two tsunami victims from Blackburn received an apology for delays in identifying their loved ones.

The coroner said sorry to scores of relatives as the mass inquest into the deaths of the 93 British people who perished came to an emotional end.

The inquests in London this week were told that it took six months to identify a Blackburn man who died in the tsunami and 12 weeks to confirm his wife's death.

And there were many other similar stories heard during the inquests into the British victims of the Boxing Day Indian Ocean tsunami.

Among the hearings staged this week was the inquest into the deaths of Susan and Terence Ford, of Country Mews, of Preston New Road, Blackburn.

The couple had travelled out on Christmas Eve for a holiday in the Khao Lak Countryside Resort on Nang-Thong beach, Thailand.

On Christmas Day they phoned their daughters, who live in Westhoughton and Lancaster, and wished them a Merry Christmas.

Their family never heard from them again.

Three months later Mrs Lord's death was confirmed after she was identified by her dental records.

Six months on from the tsunami, Mr Ford was identified using DNA.

Due to the time taken to confirm their deaths, their joint funeral did not take place until September.

The mass inquests ended on a solemn note, with everyone standing in silence as relatives held back tears while the names of people killed in the tsunami were flashed across a screen.

Before that, West London Coroner Alison Thompson had apologised, telling families that mistakes had been made unintentionally - but said lessons had been learned.

In closing the hearing, Ms Thompson said: "I know that some of the families have suffered delay and uncertainty, particularly after the time of the Thai policy of allowing visual identification stopped in January.

"I know that mistakes were made initially -- not through the fault of our own teams but because of the sheer scale of the impact overseas.

"The local community had no experience of mass recovery.

"It meant that some of the families were victims of this delay.

"No-one would have wanted that to have happened but I think, and believe, that we were right to secure the process that we did."