A GRIEF-stricken structural engineer threw himself off a hotel balcony just days after his wife plunged 60ft to her death from a holiday apartment, an inquest heard today.

Tragic Mathilde Lamb, known as Tilly, 43, died when she accidentally slipped from the balcony of a luxury third floor apartment in Morocco, where she was enjoying a family holiday.

Her husband Roger, 47, was unable to cope with her death and jumped from the first floor balcony of a luxury city centre hotel just three days later.

Wiltshire and Swindon Coroner's Court heard local police were initially stumped by the deaths - with locals reporting a blazing row between the couple hours before Mrs Lamb's fall.

But an inquest in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, today heard that both Mrs Lamb and her husband had been woken in the early hours by loud noises coming from the street below their apartment.

Mrs Lamb slipped and fell out of the window after she climbed onto a sofa, placing one foot on a wooden balustrade, after hearing someone banging continuously on the door.

One of her children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said that he had woken to find a room full of locals and police, each of who were trying to comfort Mr Lamb.

He said: "I asked my dad what happened and he said that mum had fallen out of the window to her death.

"He said there was a lot of banging going on downstairs and mum had gone to the window in the living room to see what it was.

"She had stood on the sofa and put her food on the wooden railing across the window, and had then fallen.

"Dad said he had rushed to stop her but hadn't managed to catch her feet and she had fallen."

Mrs Lamb died in hospital just hours after falling from an apartment in the exclusive resort of Essaouria, on Morocco's western Atlantic coast, on August 17.

Mr Lamb was found critically injured three days later on August 21, below a balcony at the five-star Sofitel hotel in the centre of Essaouria, after telling his family he was going for swim.

He was rushed to the same hospital but transferred 250 miles away to a specialist unit in Marrakech, where he died the following day.

David Ridley, coroner for Wiltshire and Swindon, heard that Mr Lamb had a background of mental health issues and had been prescribed antidepressants while working in New Zealand.

The inquest heard Mr Lamb had walked into the sea with a rucksack full of rocks in an attempt to drown himself just hours after Mrs Lamb's death, but was rescued by one of his children and taken to hospital.

The family are believed to have gone away to Morocco to relax while deciding whether to live in their £850,000 farmhouse in Pensham or New Zealand.

Mr Lamb, an engineer, had recently returned from almost a year of working in Christchurch, on New Zealand's South island.

The inquest heard he was keen for his family to move to the country - 11,000 miles away from their home - to set up a new life.

But Mrs Lamb, who ran an upmarket bed and breakfast from the family home, had not wanted to leave Worcestershire - creating "great strain" on their marriage.

A verdict of accidental death was recorded for Mrs Lamb and one of suicide was recorded for Mr Lamb.