A murder inquiry has been launched after a British couple were found dead at their isolated rural home in southwestern France.

Police suspect the husband killed his wife and then took his own life after they reportedly found a suicide note mentioning financial difficulties.

The married couple, who have not been named, were discovered by concerned friends who paid a call after not hearing from them for at least three days in Boudrac, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, south of Toulouse.

Arriving on Sunday afternoon at their home, they found the lifeless body of a 65-year-old woman in the sitting room.

“She has been dead for some days and had a rope around her neck,” said Christophe Amunzateguy, the public prosecutor in nearby Saint-Gaudens.

“Wounds were also found on her body – there were signs of strangulation and blows.”

Gendarmes later found the woman’s husband, 64, dead in a neighbouring gite. The door had been locked from the inside.

Mr Amunzateguy said: “He was found hanged, and had left a note.”

“The couple had a project to open a guesthouse but it was ended because of financial difficulties,” he added.

The note found at the scene spoke of financial trouble, according to reports.

“It appears that one ended the life of the other before taking his own life,” he said.

The childless couple, who had been living in France for the past 10 years, bought their house in Boudrac, population 130, early last year and wanted to turn it into a bed and breakfast. The woman was from Barnsley, Yorkshire, and the man from Dunbridge Wells, Kent.

The couple were “unknown to police and not known by neighbours as being a couple with problems”.

Confirming that an investigation for “aggravated homicide” had been opened, Mr Amunzateguy said initial investigations “clearly suggest this was a femicide”.

“There was no evidence of a third party being involved. The death of this woman was not intentional on her part.”

He added that autopsies would be performed on each of the bodies on Tuesday to determine the cause and time of death, which he said was estimated as last Thursday or Friday.