Police were today quizzing up to 14 people taken in for questioning over the murder of newlywed doctor Catherine Mullany on the island of Antigua.

Fellow guests alerted police at 5am on Sunday after hearing shouts and screams and several gunshots coming from the Mullanys' luxury holiday cottage in the grounds of the Cocos Hotel. They found 31-year-old Dr Mullany, née Bowen, with a fatal head wound.

Her husband, Benjamin, also 31, was today said to be in a critical condition in the island's Holberton Hospital with injuries including a fractured skull, damage to the spinal cord, brain haemorrhaging and a broken leg.

He was shot in the neck, but the bullet was said to travelled up into his head and lodged in his brain.

Police told reporters that when they arrived on the scene he was able to communicate, but that he lapsed into a coma.

"Police who met him at the scene before the amublance arrived felt he was giving certain signs with a finger that indicated he knew what was going on. I think he just went downhill from there," said Inspector Cornelius Charles of the Antigua police.

"He never regained consciousness and his condition has worsened."

Mr Mullany's parents were due to arrive on Antigua later, and may supervise his move from the ramshackle one-storey hospital to a more modern facility on another island or in the United States.

Dr Mullany's murder - the night before the couple were due to return home to Swansea from their two week honeymoon - appeared to be the culmination of a unprecedented weekend crime spree. The day before, two local men were shot dead in separate incidents around the island's capital, St John, 10 miles away. Detectives were said to be investigating whether the attacks were linked.

Violent crime is on the increase in Antigua, but Dr Mullany is the first tourist to be shot on the island in a decade.

"The whole island's taken it personally," said Insp Charles. "We rely on tourism here."

Andy Liburd, news editor of the Antigua Sun, agreed that the attack had sent shock waves through the island community. He told GMTV: "They have probably pulled in at least 14 persons. What police have been saying is that this is a robbery that went terribly wrong."

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