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An inquest on a teacher from Kent whose badly burned body was found in a Qatari desert has been opened.

Lauren Patterson, 24, from West Malling, had been working in Doha when she disappeared following a night out in the capital in October.

Her body was found in a remote part of the desert by a person flying a hawk, Kent coroner Patricia Harding said.

Post-mortem tests failed to find her cause of death. Several arrests were made following her suspected murder.

"Circumstances as we understand it are that she was a single lady, temporarily living in a rented apartment in Doha, where she was working," a spokeswoman for the Mid Kent and Medway Coroner said.

Identification was made possible through DNA testing, she added.

The inquest will resume in February when the coroner is expected to review information from officials in the Gulf state.

In a statement on the Gulf state's last month, officials said police had arrested multiple suspects over the murder of a European woman.

The case was now subject to further judicial procedures, it said.