A POLICE investigation is under way into the death of a woman who died after falling off a canal boat in north Oxfordshire.

Emergency services were called to the Oxford Canal at Broadmoor Lock, north of Cropredy, near Banbury, shortly after 5.20pm yesterday.

Amanda Chappell, who was 47 and from Diptford, near Ivybridge, in Devon, fell off the back of the boat into a lock.

She is understood to have worked as a teaching assistant at a school in Plymouth and was a parish councillor in her home village. Police are trying to establish precisely how she died.

The canal was closed for a short period as officers began their investigation.

Thames Valley Police spokesman David Staines said: “We received reports that a 47-year-old woman had fallen into the canal at Broadmoor Lock and her death was confirmed at 5.40pm.”

The incident is not being treated as suspicious, but police spokesman Vicky Brandon added that the death was being treated as “unexplained”.

She said: “The investigation will try to establish precisely how she died and a post-mortem will be carried out.”

Mrs Chappell and her husband, who had two children, are thought to have hired the boat from a firm in Rugby, Warwickshire, for a holiday on canals in the region.

A spokesman for the Oxfordshire Coroner said that they had yet to formally identify the body.

He added that an inquest into the death would be opened next week.