The death of a popular running club member who died while scuba diving in Gran Canaria has been ruled as an accident.

An inquest into the death of Justine Barringer found recent exercise could have played a part in the tragedy.

The Sanderling Way, Iwade resident returned to Gran Canaria with her fiancée last September, a year after they were engaged on the Spanish island, along with her mother and her mother’s friend.

But four days into the holiday, the 44-year-old lost consciousness around 10 metres below the surface while on an advanced scuba diving course.

The British Transport Police officer, who was described as fit by fiancée Tina Best, had dived to around 27 metres, but lost consciousness while resurfacing.

Attempts to revive her on the dive’s boat and at a nearby harbour failed and she was pronounced dead.

A post mortem in Spain proved inconclusive, and her heart remains in Tenerife for further tests.

A subsequent post mortem in the UK gave the cause of death as decompression sickness brought about by scuba diving, but said recent exercise could have played a part, with a lengthy run causing rhabdomyolysis, a form of muscle damage.

Assistant coroner Ian Wade, speaking in the hearing at Maidstone’s Archbishop’s Palace, said: “Justine was a short distance runner, she watched her health and took it very seriously.

“She went for a 40-minute run the night before her death, she didn’t seem to have suffered any ill effect but it is proposed such exercise the night before might have played some part in what happened.”

Fellow BTP officer Tina Best was waiting for her partner to return from the dive when she saw a “commotion” at a nearby harbour,

Not suspecting it was her fiancée, Miss Best returned to the dive centre.

She told the inquest: “When I got to the dive centre there were two guys in there, when I arrived they stood up.

“They both looked at me, it was like I knew, they both looked like rabbits in the headlights.

“I said, was that Justine? One of them said ‘I’m really sorry we did everything we could,’ my legs gave way after that.”

Miss Barringer’s family are continuing to try and have her heart returned home.