Two British ex-pats, including a former Olympic diver, have been found shot dead in their three-bedroomed home in Xaló near Benidorm in south-east Spain.

The retired couple, both aged 77 and named by Spanish police as Peter and Jean Tarsey, were discovered after friends who had lunch with them every Sunday raised the alarm.

Peter Tarsey is said to have represented Britain as a diver at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics as well as competing in two Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze medal in 1958.

Police found the couple on the sofa, each with various gunshot wounds from a small calibre weapon. "Some of their friends became worried and called police to go look for them when they were not able to reach them," said a spokesman for the local Guardia Civil. Some reports claim they had been shot in the head.