Murder Hunt As Woman, 85, Dies After Mugging

An 85-year-old woman has died after she fell and hit her head when muggers snatched her handbag.

Scotland Yard detectives are treating her death as murder and are appealing for witnesses to the incident, which happened on Monday afternoon in an alleyway in Greenford, west London.

The woman was still conscious when police arrived at the scene of the attack in Oldfield Lane South.

She was taken to hospital and died in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Detective Chief Inspector Russell Taylor said: "We are keen to speak to anyone who may have seen the sequence of events which will have occurred in a potentially busy area of Greenford in daylight.

"We are particularly keen to hear from anyone who may have seen the victim or the suspects at the time."

Police believe two men dressed in dark clothes sneaked up behind the woman and grabbed her bag, causing her to fall.

The pair, described as black, ran off in the direction of Farndale Crescent with the handbag, which was later found by detectives.

The woman's family have been told, but she has not yet been formally identified, police said. A post-mortem examination is due to be carried out later today.