A NURSE said she only turned her back for a minute when a mother-of-three fled a hospital and was later killed by a train.

Deborah Yalcin, 51, from Bromley, was detained at the John Radcliffe Hospital following a mental health assessment before she was killed on the tracks at Didcot on December 3 2015.

It took two minutes for her to leave the emergency assessment unit while two nurses were occupied with their other patients.

Ashton Barrett, staff nurse at the hospital, said Mrs Yalcin was under her care during the night of December 2 and it was her responsibility to make sure she did not leave.

She was attending one of her other five patients in a side room and had to close the door for privacy.

She said: "I had to bring him a commode but I told the staff nurse if she could keep an eye out, especially looking out for bed five, which is where Debby was.

"When I came out my sister asked me if I knew where Debby was. I woke Mr Yalcin and asked him if she knew where she had gone."

Miss Barrett immediately took Mr Yalcin down to the hospital's security office, so he could provide a description of her and the clothes she had been wearing when she left.

Lorena Grinan was the nurse instructed to keep an eye on Mrs Yalcin, while her colleague helped her patient.

But as one of her own patients began vomiting, Miss Grinan turned her back from Mrs Yalcin for a couple of minutes.

She said: "My patient was calling out for me and I had to hand her a kidney dish.

"When I turned back she was not in her bed area. I started searching around the ward.

"It could have only been two minutes."

Moments before her patients began vomitting, Miss Grinan noticed Mrs Yalcin walking around her bed area and staring out the window.

She added: "I went over to her and asked if she was okay or if she needed anything.

"She told me she was fine.

"She was very calm."

It is believed Mrs Yalcin left the hospital at 7.01am on December 3 as CCTV footage showed her running away from the department.

Security officers thought that she left in the direction of the roundabout where the bus stop is.

The inquest continues.