What a tragic waste of two lives: Lying on a bed littered with drugs, the young British newlyweds - both with first class degrees - found dead in a hotel near the Taj Mahal on a backpacking tour of India.

James and Alex Gaskell found beside wide array of prescription drugs

Indian police say teachers, aged 27 and 24, overdosed in locked room

Couple, who taught at Manchester International College, wed in November 

Relatives insisted: 'This wasn't two young people on a drug-fuelled trip'

Mr Gaskell had been on medication for bouts of depression, they said 

He had written: 'Codeine under the counter here. With Valium and Xanax'

Surrounded by sleeping pills, anti-depressants and empty bottles of cough syrup, these are the bodies of two British newly-weds found dead in an Indian hotel.

Police say James and Alex Gaskell – both teachers with first-class degrees – died of an overdose in their locked room near the Taj Mahal.

A guide book, travel bag, mobile phone and other holiday paraphernalia can be seen on their double bed.

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This is the harrowing final scene in the lives of James and Alex Gaskell. The picture, issued by Indian police, shows them surrounded by packs of the drugs that claimed their lives. Readers may find it distressing, but the Mail is publishing it, with the bodies pixellated, in the hope it will serve as a warning against the horrific dangers of casual drug use

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Old-fashioned romance: The couple in 2012 (left) and smiling at a temple days before their deaths (right)

The shocking scene is a stark contrast to the happy image that Mrs Gaskell, 24, had posted a few days earlier of the couple smiling in front of a temple in Delhi.

Her 27-year-old husband had posted a series of messages on Twitter outlining his casual attitude to drugs.