British toddlers found dead in Spanish resort

Two British toddlers have been found dead in a hotel room in a Spanish coastal resort, police said.

The toddlers were found in a room in the resort of Lloret de Mar on the Costa Brava yesterday afternoon.

The children's mother is being questioned by police.

Newspaper El Mundo said on its website that the mother had phoned police but the children could not be saved.

The British Embassy in Madrid said an investigation had been launched into the deaths and a spokesman said: "We are in contact with the Spanish police but because the children are minors we cannot say much.

"We believe the mother has been arrested. There is an ongoing investigation."

Embassy staff said they were trying to establish whether the family was on holiday in Spain or living in the country.

Police were called to the hotel, 47 miles north of Barcelona, at 2 p.m. A woman who answered the phone at the Hotel Miramar in Lloret de Mar said she could not comment.

El Mundo reported the local police arrested the woman after the children, aged between one and five, were discovered in the hotel room where the family was on holiday. The mother had spoken to reception staff at the four-star hotel, who called an ambulance.

Emergency services were unable to save the children, understood to be a boy and a girl.