World's oldest person dies aged 117

A woman believed to be the oldest person in the world has died aged 117, authorities in Italy said.

Emma Morano, who was born on 29 November 1899, was also officiallly the last living person in the world born in the 19<sup>th century.

Morano was born in a northern Italian town, and lived through two world wars and in three different centuries.

She had often been asked about the secret of living a long life and put her own extraordinary lifespan down to eating two raw eggs and one cooked egg every day.

In Morano's local city of Verbania, where she died at her home, she was praised as a strong, extraordinary woman by Mayor Silvia Marchionini.

Machionini told the BBC: "She had an extraordinary life, and we will always remember her strength to help us move forward in life."

Her death was confirmed by friends and family on Saturday (15 April), Reuters reported.

In 2016, Susannah Mushatt Jones died in New York at age 116 years, 311 days. She was the last American born in the 1800s.

Jones had become the Guinness Book of World Records' oldest living person after her predecessor Misao Okawa, from Tokyo, died on 17 June 2015, aged 116 years and 25 days – Jones then passing the mantle to Morano after her death in May last year.