SAFETY experts today issued a warning to campers after a man is thought to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning when he put a gas-fired barbecue inside his tent to keep warm.

Vincent Clare is understood to have put the barbecue outside again after warding off the chill – but was killed by fumes lingering under the canvas.

The tragedy happened just 24 hours after Mr Clare and his wife Alison booked into a privately run campsite in the New Forest.

The 50-year-old service manager was found dead in his sleeping bag. His wife was seriously ill but survived.

The couple, from Milton Keynes, were discovered when other members of the family arrived at the campsite and went to their tent.

A post-mortem examination has failed to establish the cause of death, resulting in further tests being carried out. However, a police spokesman said Mr Clare was thought to have died from carbon monoxide poisoning. He confirmed that the incident was not being treated as suspicious and added: “There’s some speculation about a gas barbecue.”

The tragedy occurred at Red Shoot Camping Park, near Ringwood last Friday just days before the busy school summer holiday season.

Jacqui Oldfield, one of the owners, said: “I was off site and returned about 15 minutes after he’d been found. It was absolutely horrible.”

Carbon monoxide is colourless, odourless and virtually impossible to detect without special monitoring devices.

Last night the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) issued an alert to campers preparing to visit the New Forest and other sites.

A RoSPA spokesman said: “The burning of all fossil fuels produces carbon monoxide (CO). There have been deaths and serious injuries from CO poisoning in both tents and caravans.

“People should never use stoves or disposable barbecues for either cooking or warmth in an enclosed space with poor ventilation.

“Caravanners should have gas-powered appliances serviced annually and should consider using an audible carbon monoxide alarm inside their caravan.

“We also advise people not to take barbecues into their tents, even if they’re cooling down.”

The Red Shoot tragedy comes just two weeks after Hazel Woodhams, 30, of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, was killed by carbon monoxide fumes from a charcoal barbecue at a campsite near Great Yarmouth in Norfolk.

Miss Woodhams, a scenes of crime officer for police in Leeds, was found dead in her tent.

Similar tragedies have occurred in other countries, including the USA.

Four people camping in Georgia, America, in 1999 were found dead in a zipped-up tent that contained a propane gas stove. A few weeks later a man and his seven-year-old son died in a tent containing a charcoal grill.

Investigators said both devices had been taken inside to provide warmth.