Dolores O'Riordan died from accidental drowning

LONDON • Cranberries lead singer Dolores O'Riordan died from drowning after heavy drinking, a coroner in London ruled on Thursday.

She was found in a bathtub in a room at the London Hilton hotel around 9am on Jan 15. There was no evidence of self-harm or other injuries, but her blood alcohol level was more than four times the legal driving limit in Britain, the court heard. The death was an accident, the coroner ruled at the hearing, which was held on what would have been O'Riordan's 47th birthday.

After the ruling, her Cranberries bandmates tweeted: "To see how much of a positive impact she had on people's lives has been a source of great comfort to us."

The band continue "to struggle to come to terms with what happened", the statement added, before asking for privacy.

The court heard that O'Riordan had bipolar disorder, but had responded well to treatment, the BBC reported. A psychiatrist told the court that he had spoken with her just days before her death and that she had been in good spirits.

The Cranberries achieved widespread popularity principally in the 1990s, thanks to hits including Linger, which remained on Billboard's Hot 100 chart for 24 weeks, and Dreams.

O'Riordan wrote lyrics and often the music for many of them.

She was the sole writer of Zombie, an impassioned response to an Irish Republican Army terrorist bombing in 1993.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 08, 2018, with the headline Dolores O'Riordan died from accidental drowning. Subscribe