A 12-year-old boy who died after a heavy branch fell on him in Richmond Park was the victim of a tragic accident, an inquest heard on Monday. Nathan Louis, was playing nearby a large oak tree in the park in May last year, when a branch snapped off and fell on him.

At Fulham Coroner's Court, Coroner Alison Thompson recorded the verdict as accidental death after Nathan was struck by the falling branch, sustaining unsurvivable injuries.

However, she said that it was hard to reach an easy conclusion after hearing some of the evidence whereby certain biological work that was meant to be carried out on the tree wasn't done within an envisaged time scale - but said this would not necessarily have made any difference to the safety of the tree or prevented the accident from happening.

A witness to the incident, Dervilla Mitchell, said: "I was with my two children in the park. It was a glorious afternoon and the kids were having a wonderful time.

"I noticed this family. The area didn't feel remote as it was quite close to the road. I heard a very sharp cracking sound and I knew it was a tree falling. I looked around and saw that my two children were further down. Other people were calling out for their children and it became apparent quite quickly that a child was under the tree.

"Men were trying to get in and help him. I asked one of them if they had called an ambulance and they passed me their phone and I called them.

"They were checking if he was breathing. Time seemed to go very slowly waiting for the ambulance."

The air ambulance arrived first and landed. Mrs Mitchell added that she believed they took between 30 and 45 minutes to arrive.

Wayne Bateman of the London Ambulance Service spoke to confirm the time of arrival and which gate they were told to come into at the park, which was not the nearest.

He agreed that had they been advised to come through the nearest gate they would have arrived earlier, however there was no way of telling whether this would have saved the child. A senior consultant for Barrell Tree Care, Jeremy Barrell, visited the site following the accident and recorded that there were no visible signs of decay or decline. On closer inspection he noticed that there was a wound, but in his opinion the accident was caused by a phenomenon called summer branch drop' and said there is no way of ever preventing this risk with any type of tree The manager of Richmond Park, Simon Richards and Neville Fay, the director of Tree Work Service, spoke to confirm that two surveys were carried out identifying the tree in question as one which needed biological work done to it within a year. The accident took place six months after the survey was published and no work had yet been started. But this would not necessarily have made the tree safer as the surveys were not carried out to establish any hazards posed by the trees, but to ensure their longevity.

A representative for the family and a solicitor for Richmond Park were present to establish whether there were any failings which could have led to the accident.

The coroner concluded by saying that Richmond Park were still within a 12 month recommended period to carry out work on the tree and it was unclear that had the work been started earlier it could have improved the safety of the oak.

She said to Nathan's parents: "I express my deepest sympathy to the Louis family. I can't begin to imagine how difficult it must have been to sit there and relive these events. We know that Nathan was instantly knocked unconscious and his last experience of this world would have been with his family on a happy day in the park. He didn't suffer beyond that."