DEATHS certified in Burnley are being investigated by detectives probing the killing spree of GP Harold Shipman.

The East Lancashire coroner's officer has been asked to check old records in a bid to find new cases which may be linked to the serial murderer.

It is now believed he may have killed 297 patients during a 30-year-long career in Todmorden and at Hyde in Greater Manchester according to a Government report.

Shipman, 54, is serving life for murdering 15 elderly women.

Shipman practised in Todmorden in the 1970s and people from the town were regularly brought to Burnley General Hospital for treatment or taken to the hospital after death.

A spokeswoman for West Yorkshire police said today that of the 80 deaths in the area which went to post mortem examination in the relevant period, 13 were reported by Shipman.

Of those, Shipman was with three of the people shortly before their death. "We are looking at two of those in more thorough detail," said the spokeswoman.

She added that they were looking to see if there were more cases and said: "Because some of the deaths could have been certified in Burnley or Rochdale we are in liaison with the coroner's officer in those two areas."

During his years in Todmorden Shipman certified 35 deaths and all those are being examined. Individual details are not being revealed.

Shipman worked at the Abraham Ormerod Centre while in Todmorden.

A native of Nottingham, Shipman qualified as a GP in Leeds and started his medical career at Pontefract General Infirmary in 1970.

Four years later he joined a medical centre in Todmorden.

His career was halted for a time after he was convicted of a serious addiction to pethidine, the morphine substitute. He then moved to Hyde.