Indian hotel room where young British couple found dead was 'littered with pills'

James and Alexandra Gaskell found on Tuesday in Agra, near the Taj Mahal

James and Alexandra Gaskell (Facebook)

The owner of an Indian hotel where a young British couple have been found dead from a suspected overdose has said their room was littered with anti-depressants and other medicines.

James Gaskell, 27, and his wife Alexandra, 24, from Birmingham, were found in the room of their budget hotel in the city of Agra on Tuesday morning. They had apparently checked into the Maya Hotel, in the city famed as the location of the Taj Mahal, the previous evening, and were discovered by a member of staff at around 11am on Tuesday.

Owner Rajesh Gupta told The Independent that an employee had gone to the room to see if the couple wanted to extend their stay. The door was partly open and the employee thought the pair were unconscious.

“All the lights were on, and the fan. He said they seemed unconscious,” said Mr Gupta, who said he charged between seven to nine pounds a night for his rooms. “We soon called the police and the intelligence people and they came. There were all these pills in the room, anti-depressant pills.”

British officials in India said they were aware of the death of the couple and were assisting their families. The Indian authorities are currently conducting post mortem tests on the bodies of the tourists.

Police have told local media that the couple appeared to have died from a drugs overdose. There was no evidence of a suicide note, reports said.

MailOnline reported that Mr Gaskell had been commenting on social media about how easy it was in India to buy powerful drugs such as Valium, Xanax and Lyrica, which in Britain require a prescription.

“One prescription in India (after you have told the doctor what to write) will take you faaaaaar,” he reportedly wrote on Sunday.