THE body of a 30-year-old mother was found hanging from the bannister by her two young children at the family's Blackburn home, police said today.

Rehana Bashir, who was suffering from depression, is thought to have killed herself after her husband's return from Pakistan was delayed, police said.

Officers said Mrs Bashir had been sleeping with her 11-year-old and six-year-old sons at the Revidge Road home before getting up at 6am on Sunday.

The boys came down to find her at 8am and ran for help from nearby relatives who called for an ambulance but she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Around 500 family and friends attended a funeral yesterday at Chester Street Mosque followed by a burial at Pleasington Cemetery.

Husband Mohammed was staying with relatives in Pakistan but had delayed his return, which had been planned for Sunday, until an unknown date.

An inquest into the death, opened yesterday afternoon at Blackburn registrar office, heard there were no suspicious circumstances.

A post mortem examination has been carried out and the inquest was adjourned until August 1 for further toxicology tests.