Fuengirola police are unclear about the reasons behind the double suicide, although investigators believe one of the twins found the other one had taken his life when he returned to the home they shared and decided to follow suit.

Officers on the scene found both elderly men with plastic bags over their heads and duct tape over their mouths, pointing to the most probable cause of death as asphyxiation, local online daily Sur wrote on Thursday.

“I’m absolutely shocked,” Ignacio Pacios, a lawyer working in the same building, told The Local.

“They were a very polite and easy-going pair. I never would have guessed they’d do something like that.”

A neighbour in the same building in Federico Ruiz Vertedor street noticed a bad smell coming from the twins’ flat and quickly alerted the emergency services.

Firemen found the bodies at 6pm on Wednesday after accessing their home from the apartment next door.

One of the elderly men was found sitting on a chair in the living room, the other lying on his bed.

“They live just round the corner from here! At first I thought they were twin babies, but when I carried on reading and they were 83 I was very surprised.”

Investigators think George and James Chalkley had been dead for three days.

 There’s no evidence of foul play or third party involvement.