Epidemic fears as flu kills girl, 3

There are increasing fears today that a flu epidemic is spreading following the death of a three-year-old girl.

Her nursery school remained closed today after the tragedy - although it now seems that the virus which killed Hazel Quinn was not the deadly Fujian strain.

Hazel, who attended Marsh School in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, had been thought to be suffering from the strain that has claimed the lives of five children.

But tests have now found that Hazel had a common form of the virus and may have already been suffering from a heart defect.

Hazel's parents are "devastated" by her death at Wycombe Hospital on Saturday, just six days short of her fourth birthday.

Her mother Lucy, father Mark and two-year-old sister Shelley, of London Road, High Wycombe, released a tribute to her through Thames Valley Police.

It read: "Please remember at the heart of this a very special girl has died. All of us, our family and friends are utterly devastated by the loss of our beautiful little girl."

A Buckinghamshire County Council spokeswoman said the school, which has 180 pupils, had been closed because parents' concerns but is now set to reopen next week.

She said the cause of death had not been established but the bug was the "not particularly virulent" influenza A virus.