Brave Caroline Braddick tried to revive two women killed by carbon monoxide poisoning in a country pub.

Accountant Caroline, 26, of Carterton, near Witney, raised the alarm when two friends failed to show for breakfast at the 16th century Crown Inn in Wentnor, Shropshire, where they had been to an annual reunion at Bedstone College, a nearby boarding school.

Caroline said: "I was staying in one room with a girl friend and two other friends, a man and a woman, were in another.

"When they didn't show up for breakfast we went looking for them and found them unconscious in bed. I dialled 999 and we tried desperately to resuscitate them."

Then she remembered two women, who were not in the reunion party, were in another room. We broke down their door and found one in bed and the other slumped on the bathroom floor. They were in their nightdresses. We tried to resuscitate them but I realise now they were already dead."

Firefighters wearing gas masks threw open windows to clear the carbon monoxide, which kills by blocking the body's ability to hold oxygen in the bloodstream. Caroline, her roommate and two other people were treated at the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital before being allowed home.

Forensic and health and safety experts have launched an investigation into a possible blockage of a boiler flue.

The two dead women, who have not been named, were both in their late 20s and thought to be from Surrey.

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