PHUKET: The diving community on Phi Phi and in the surrounding Phuket region has been shocked by the death - apparently at her own hand - of a female British divemaster.

The body of the 39-year-old woman was found hanged at a bungalow on Phi Phi last night. Security camera footage, say police, show her carrying out a suicide at 7.10pm.

Nothing is know about the woman's motive for taking her own life. She was, Phuketwan was told tonight, a longtime resident on Phi Phi.

Earlier in the evening a male friend left a takeaway meal outside the woman's door at the bungalow where she lived, the security camera footage is said to show.

Cleaning staff saw the woman in a sitting position on a stairway in the bungalow last night but failed to realise anything was amiss until 8.10 pm when one of them asked the woman a question, and she failed to respond.

Only then did the bungalow staff discover a fine, almost invisible cord around her neck, attached to a ballustrade on the stairway.

Police on Phi Phi, a popular diving and snorkelling island often reached from Phuket by speedboat or ferry, said tonight that security camera footage clearly showed the woman taking her own life.

Phuketwan has been given the name of the woman but will not publish it until we can be sure that British Embassy officials in Bangkok have notified the woman's next of kin.

Anyone feeling depressed on Phuket or anywhere in Thailand is advised to contact friends or family to talk about the reason for their distress. If no friends or family are contactable, see a doctor.