A LANCASTER woman died of thirst in the Saudi desert after her husband had been blown up by an unexploded shell.

Susan McGhee, 32, and her husband Ian, 48, has gone a picnic outside the city of Jeddah where they lived when they came across what is thought to have been an artillery shell. It exploded as Mr McGhee picked it up.

Mrs McGhee was found a mile away, three-and-a-half hours later, dead from dehydration and heat exhaustion caused by exposure to the scorching sun and temperatures in excess of 113 degrees Fahrenheit.

The air search was hampered because she was unable to give an exact location.

Jamal Khahoggi, deputy editor of Arab News in Jeddah, said it was still unclear how the couple came to be in the area used for military training.

"They were near to a firing range and there are signs to warn people not to go off limits."

It seems Mrs McGhee used her mobile to call her friends at the hospital where she worked. For some reason she didn't stay in the car. She was found about three kilometres away."

The Saudi authorities are now investigating the incident which happened on Friday afternoon.

The couple had been married for just over a year. A spokesman for the British Consulate General, confirmed that Mr McGhee was originally from Walsall in the West Midlands where his mother still lives.

He had been based in Saudi Arabia for more than 20 years and was working in the sales department of a local company when he died. Mrs McGhee, who was from Lancaster, was an administrator in the paediatric unit at King Khaled's National Guards hospital in Jeddah. Her colleagues were too upset to comment.

Funeral arrangements for the couple were expected to be finalised within the next few days.