A mother from Tenterden has been killed after a boat crash in the Amazon rainforest.

Gillian Metcalf, 50, of Plummer Lane, was going to the Juma Amazon Lodge with her family when their boat was hit by another vessel travelling at high speed at 8.30am on Thursday.

Mrs Metcalf, a founding partner from Sharratts law firm, suffered serious head injuries in the collision.

“It was an accident," said Vincent Brown, the British honorary-consul in Manaus.

"Two boats collided, there were seven tourists in one boat that was hit by a smaller boat."

He added that Mrs Metcalf was on a hotel tourist boat with her husband Charles and daughters Alice and Natasha.

“The police are investigating because it was seemingly a reckless act,” he said. “He (the other boat skipper) wasn’t in control of the situation. He wasn’t driving the boat at the speed he should have been driving.”

Mrs Metcalf's colleague Richard Locke, another founding partner of Sharratts, said the firm were devastated by what had happened.

"As you will imagine this news has hit us all very hard," he said.

"Gill was a marvellous Lawyer, a generous friend and most of all a loving wife and devoted mother to her two girls.

"We have all lost a very special person."

A spokesman from the Foreign Office said: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Manaus on September 5. We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."