Hotel Chemical Couple Named

Police have named a man and woman who were found dead at a luxury hotel.

The bodies of Igor Pavlov, 27 and Daria Kuchuk, 35, both from Russia, were discovered in a room at the Scotsman Hotel in Edinburgh last Thursday. 

The couple, who lived in the city, were found by hotel staff at around 12.15pm. 

Their deaths were chemical-related and a number of items seized from the room continue to undergo forensic analysis, Police Scotland said. 

The pair took the chemical into the hotel with them prior to their deaths.

An address in the Royal Mile area of the city was searched on Friday but no further traces of chemicals were found. 

A Police Scotland spokesman said: ``Inquiries are ongoing into the full circumstances surrounding both of these deaths, which continue to be treated as unexplained at this time.'' 

Staff at the five-star hotel found the couple in a room on the sixth floor alongside containers of chemicals, prompting a major emergency response. 

Suicide has not been ruled out. 

Hotel guests said they had noticed a strong smell ''like sewage'' before the bodies were found. 

Around 25 specialist firefighters were sent to the scene as part of a Scottish Fire and Rescue chemical incident team. 

The sixth floor was evacuated and a large cordon put in place outside the hotel entrance in North Bridge, yards from the historic Royal Mile and a short distance from Princes Street, the city's main shopping thoroughfare. 

The bodies were later removed from the hotel and post-mortem examinations carried out.