Help had been offered to the victim of a tragic fire which took place at a public toilets in Saltcoats last week, North Ayrshire council have confirmed.

On the morning of Monday, November 15, a blaze took hold of the public toilets situated within Melbourne Park, Melbourne Road.

Despite the efforts of mercy crews, including police, ambulance and fire fighters who attended the scene, a woman sadly died as a result of the incident.

The death is not being treated as suspicious and a full report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.

In a statement issued today, the council said they were "aware" of the woman who died, and that they had offered her temporary accommodation in the weeks leading up to her death, as well as access to support services.

They added that staff who were familiar with the woman were "distraught" following Monday's events.

A North Ayrshire Council spokesperson said: “While we generally don’t comment on individual cases, we can confirm we were aware of the woman who tragically died and had been attempting to offer her the help she required.

“We were hopeful that she would take up our offer of temporary accommodation and we had also been with working with partner organisations to offer the lady access to services.

“It would not be appropriate to comment further at this stage other than to say we are distraught at Monday’s events, particularly the members of staff who were familiar with her.

“Our thoughts go out to the family and friends and we will continue to work with our colleagues at Police Scotland who are carrying out a full investigation.”

In terms of when the public toilets might reopen, the council said it was too early to give a timescale for when that might be, and also for the associated costs.