A young British woman has been found dead alongside a man in what police believe was a murder-suicide in Australia.

The body of the woman, who is in her 20s but has not been named, was found next to the body of a man in his 30s at a flat in the Newtown suburb of Sydney, the New South Wales Police Force said.

According to local media reports, the pair were a couple who had lived in the flat, which is above a restaurant on a road lined with bars and shops, for several months.

Emergency services were called to the scene three miles south-west of the city centre at around 5.30pm on Friday after concerns were raised for the welfare of a man and woman at the property.

“Police attended and discovered the bodies of a woman, aged in her 20s, and a man, aged in his 30s,” the force said.

Local police and detectives from the state’s homicide squad launched an investigation and officials from the British embassy have been in contact with the woman’s family.

The nationality and identity of the man have not been released, although he is understood not to be from the UK.

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Scott Haggarty, a neighbour, told the Australian Daily Telegraph he last saw them arrive home together on Wednesday afternoon.

The couple, who kept themselves to themselves, “looked happy”.

“They looked like a couple who worked in the bars and were on holidays here,” he said.

“They just looked like a regular couple, I never heard an argument or anything.”

The woman is thought to have been the victim of a murder-suicide.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are providing consular assistance to the family of a British national who has died in New South Wales, Australia, and our staff are in contact with the New South Wales police.”