Shipping tycoon's daughter Alexandra Lucy Hoegh found hanged on blind cord

The two-year-old daughter of one of the country’s richest men has died after becoming tangled in a blind cord. Alexandra Lucy Hoegh was found in her cot by her mother Dana, who witnesses said ran out into the street screaming for help.

Police said they thought the child became entangled in the cord and died on the way to hospital after paramedics rushed to the scene.

A resident told the Sun: "It's such a sad situation. It would be easy to blame yourself, but sadly accidents do happen. I heard a big commotion. When I came to the door there was an ambulance outside."

A family friend said: "Dana and Morten are a wonderful couple. Alexandra was the sweetest girl you could meet. I can hardly believe this has happened."

The tragedy happened at the family's West London home. The couple also have a six-year-old son and a daughter aged five. Mrs Hoegh, 37, who is from the United States, was taken to hospital in shock.

The child's father Morten Hoegh, 39, is the chairman of a multi-billion pound oil and gas shipping company based in Norway - Hoegh LNG. He runs the business between London and Oslo. He appears on the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £175m

A police spokesman said: "Police were called by the London Ambulance Service to an address in West London shortly after 2.25pm on Monday following reports of an injured infant.

"On arrival, officers found a two-year-old girl who was treated by paramedics and taken to a west London hospital. She was pronounced dead at 3.17pm.

"A post-mortem at Great Ormond Street Hospital is scheduled to take place in due course." The police are not treating the death as suspicious.

According to the Daily Mail, there have been at least 22 deaths as a result of strangulation on blind cords since 1999 and around half of those have occurred in the last two years.

Safety campaigners called for the blinds to be banned. Sheila Merrill, home safety manager for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, said: "A loop which hangs at waist height for an adult could slip around the neck of a young child if he or she falls.

"Or, if the loop is at floor level, it could become wrapped around the neck of a baby who is crawling. There have also been cases in which babies have been accidentally strangled by cord loops hanging into their cots. Our advice is to tie looped blind cords up out of the reach of young children or to cut the loop so it hangs in two strands."