A pensioner wept as she told an inquest how she and her husband were knocked over the edge of a ravine by a car while on holiday.

Honour Chambers' husband Bill died three weeks after the accident during a trip to the Greek island of Crete.

Mrs Chambers, of Market Harborough, described how she was the first to be hit by the vehicle as the pair walked in single file along the edge of the mountain road.

The car then ran over her husband Bill, breaking his neck and pushing him several feet over the edge of the ravine.

Mrs Chambers said: "I saw the side of the car coming towards us around a corner. The driver was struggling with the steering wheel. It took us out. The next I knew I was rolling down the hill and I must have passed out."

When she regained her senses, she saw her husband lying 10ft away on the ground, with the car over his legs. She said: "He said he could not breathe and was suffering from pins and needles. I had no idea how badly injured he was."

She said the young driver tried to help her husband by cutting off his rucksack to allow him room to breathe and called the emergency services.

Choking back tears and supported by her daughter, Mrs Chambers told the hearing at Leicester Town Hall yesterday that the couple were taken to hospital in the nearby coastal town of Agios Nikolaos following the crash on October 4.

Doctors told her that her husband had spinal injuries and he was later transferred to a hospital in the capital city Heraklion.

Mrs Chambers suffered a broken arm.

Mr Chambers, 75, a retired butcher, was flown home from Crete by air ambulance on October 23.

Dr Gareth Williams, a consultant in the intensive care unit at Leicester Royal Infirmary, was contacted on that day by the air ambulance team asking if there was a bed available.

Dr Williams was told Mr Chambers had suffered a broken neck and kidney failure and was suffering from pneumonia. But he said once Mr Chambers arrived in Leicester, his condition deteriorated and he died on October 31.

He said it was likely that Mr Chambers would have died if he had stayed in Crete.

He gave cause of death as a form of pneumonia caused by a traumatic spinal cord injury. Coroner Catherine Mason recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Crete police are continuing their investigation into the crash.