Three members of British family shot dead in apartment in Spain

http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/26/britons-believed-shot-dead-spain

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Three members of a British family have been found dead – reportedly from gunshot wounds – in an apartment in a popular holiday resort on the Costa del Sol, Spanish police have said.

The three were discovered inside a property in Mijas, near Fuengirola. A Guardia Civil spokeswoman confirmed that the family were British and that they had rented the property.

The Guardia Civil in Madrid said: "We have found three deceased and we are almost sure they are British. We are waiting for information from the judicial police at the scene. We are led to believe there were two adults and one younger person."

The Spanish news website diariosur reported that the three people – two parents and their daughter aged about 20 – could have been shot dead. According to the newspaper El País the mother and her daughter both had disabilities.

The Guardia Civil in Madrid said that the owner entered a property in Torrenueva, in the municipality of Mijas, near Málaga, at 12.30pm on Wednesday after not hearing from his British tenants. They had not been answering the phone and were in arrears with their rent. He found the body of a man with a gunshot wound on the living room sofa and called the police.

The Guardia Civil added that the bodies of the man's partner and daughter had also been found dead from gunshot wounds in a bedroom.

"The first possibility that is being pursued is that the man killed the woman and child, and afterwards killed himself, although that will have to be investigated," the Guardia Civil said.

They could not give the names of those found, and said British authorities would need to confirm both their identities and nationality, although the owner understood them to be British.