A couple who had been drug addicts for years were yesterday found dead in a parked car in an agricultural area of Pieria, northern Greece, police said, referring to the incident as a double suicide.

The bodies of the 44-year-old man and his 42-year-old female companion both bore fatal bullet wounds, according to police, who said that the man had probably shot his girlfriend before turning the gun on himself.

The regional police chief for Macedonia, Stergios Apostolides, said that officers had discovered a hand-written note in the car in which the couple had expressed their desire to be buried together. The note reportedly did not reveal the reason behind the apparent double suicide. Several sleeping pills were discovered at the feet of the dead couple, police said.