The inquests into the deaths of two people whose remains were found at the burnt down Bismarck House Mill in Oldham have been opened.

A large fire broke out at the Bower Street mill on May 7 and firefighters did not believe anyone had been inside the property at the time.

But demolition workers discovered human remains at the site on July 23, which led to a large police investigation being launched.

At Rochdale Coroner's Court this morning, Tuesday, senior coroner for Manchester North, Joanne Kearsley, opened the inquests into the deaths of Uoc Van Nguyen and a person whose identity remains unknown at this point.

At this point, the human remains of three people have been found.

During the inquest, Detective Superintendent Lewis Hughes of Greater Manchester Police (GMP) explained that Mr Van Nguyen was identified after fingerprints were obtained which were then searched against those in a national database.

His fingerprints were found to match those belonging to an ID card which is given to each Vietnamese national over a certain age.

Mr Van Nguyen's date of death has been ruled as July 28, the date his remains were discovered.

He was born in the Nghe An province in northern Vietnam and had a wife.

The 31-year-old's last known occupation in his homeland was as a farmer.

Det Supt Hughes, GMP’s Victim Identification lead, confirmed contact had been made by GMP with his family.

The second set of human remains have not yet been identified as there has not been an opportunity to obtain fingerprints or any type of DNA.

The unknown victim's date of death has been ruled as July 26, the date the remains were recovered from the scene of the fire.

Det Supt Hughes added confirmed extensive work was required to confirm the person's identity which could take a number of months.

The medical cause of death for Mr Van Nguyen and the unknown victim are currently unascertained pending further investigation.

The remaining victims who have not yet been identified are suspected of being three outstanding missing Vietnamese male nationals, Cuong Van Chu, aged 39, Duong Van Nguyen, aged 29, and Nam Thanh Le, aged 21.

Det Supt Hughes said GMP was in contact with a number of families in Vietnam as work continues to identify the unknown victims and to find any more remains.