Two-thirds of the region's ambulances were stranded outside hospitals when a mother-of-two who died from a heart attack called 999 complaining of chest pains, a court has heard.

Julie Hurn died at her home in Attleborough on June 25, 2022, having suffered a myocardial infarction while waiting for an ambulance to arrive. She was just 43.

An inquest into her death resumed on Tuesday, during which delays in her emergency response were revealed.

The court heard she had originally phoned for an ambulance at 3.26pm after she experienced chest paints, with her call given category two status.

She called again around an hour later after she began vomiting, but it was not until shortly before 5pm that her call was escalated, after a neighbour phoned again to say she had gone into cardiac arrest.

She died at 5.48pm, despite the combined efforts of paramedics, a good samaritan and a community first responder.

During the second day of the inquest, it was revealed that when her original call was made,  50 of the region's ambulance were stranded outside Norfolk's three main hospitals.

The incident happened during a "black surge", a phrase used to describe a period of acute demand on emergency services and acute hospitals.

Chris Hewitson, a patient safety specialist officer at the East of England Ambulance Service Trust, said Mrs Hurn's initial call was correctly categorised - but at this time there were 50 outstanding calls with the same priority level.

He added that at the same time, there were 19 ambulances stranded outside of the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital alone.

Yvonne Blake, area coroner for Norfolk, said: "The medical evidence we have heard so far is that if she had a cardiac arrest and either received immediate treatment or was in hospital, that given her age it is more likely than not that she would have survived.

The inquest continues.