The mother of a young London girl who died after a series of severe asthma attacks said on Monday she would have moved if she had been aware of the dangers of air pollution.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lost her daughter Ella in 2013, said "moving would have been the first thing" to do if she had known the danger it posed to the nine-year-old.

A coroner's inquest is investigating whether high levels of pollution near the family's home by a busy and regularly congested road contributed to the death.

A ruling that it was a factor would be a legal first in Britain.

Ella suffered three years of continuous asthma attacks, which saw her have to be admitted to hospital 30 times.

A first inquest in 2014 determined she had died of acute respiratory failure brought on by severe asthma.

But a new hearing was ordered after a specialist in 2018 noticed a "striking link" between levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and harmful particulate matter when she was admitted.

The family lived less than 30 metres from the South Circular road in Lewisham, south London, and have said they were unaware of the danger posed by pollution.

Adoo-Kissi-Debrah said her daughter had been "extremely healthy at birth", was "extremely active" and enjoyed sports and music despite having asthma.

But her health started to deteriorate drastically as she was taken to hospital.

After one episode when she was six, she had to be put in a medically-induced coma for three days to try to stabilise her condition.

"It got to the point we were just waiting for the next (seizure) to happen," her mother told Southwark Coroner's Court.

In 2012, Ella was classified as disabled and her mother often had to carry her around on her back.

On February 14 the following year, she suffered a severe seizure and died early the following morning.

She had seen doctors at six different hospitals in the years leading up to her death but none had suggested the family move.

Adoo-Kissi-Debrah said she and doctors had been "looking in the wrong direction" for the cause of her daughter's breathing difficulties and "didn't know because there was no rhyme or reason" for the episodes.

Coroner's inquests are held in England and Wales in the event of a sudden or unexplained death. They establish the causes and circumstances of deaths on the balance of probability.

They do not determine criminal or civil liability, guilt or blame, but set out facts in the public interest.

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