World's oldest person Emma Morano dies aged 117

The world's oldest person has died at the age of 117.

Emma Morano passed away sitting in an armchair at her home in the Italy town of Verbania.

Her doctor Carlo Bava said he had last visited her on Friday as part of his near-daily calls with her and "she thanked me and held my hand" as usual.

Born on November 29 1899, Ms Morano had lived through three centuries.

She is believed to have been the last surviving person in the world who was born in the 1800s.

She once said her secret to long life was eating eggs, and for the past 90 years she had eaten three eggs - two of them raw.

But she had to cut this down to two a day as she no longer had any teeth.