A newlywed doctor has been shot dead on her honeymoon and her husband critically injured in a suspected robbery on the Caribbean island of Antigua.

Catherine Mullany, née Bowen, and her husband, Benjamin, were attacked at their luxury holiday cottage at the Cocos Hotel on the southwest of the island. The couple were to have returned home to Rhos, near Swansea, the next day.

Guests in neighbouring cottages alerted police at 5am on Sunday after hearing several gunshots and finding Dr Mullany with a fatal head wound.

Dr Mullany’s husband, who is a trainee physiotherapist, was found with a neck wound and was last night being treated at the intensive care unit of the Holberton Hospital on the island.

Detectives believe that robbers gained entry to the couple’s cottage while they were asleep. The hillside resort complex has only 19 cottages, costing up to £330 a night, set in expansive gardens overlooking the beaches. The couple, both 31, had arrived in the Caribbean a fortnight ago.

Beverley Stairs, a fellow guest who had befriended the couple during their holiday, said she had heard three gunshots.

“They were such a lovely couple,” she told the Daily Mirror, adding that during the previous night’s dinner they had told her they were planning to start a family.

The shootings appeared to be the culmination of a crime spree during which at least two other people were shot by masked gunmen in separate incidents over the weekend.

After qualifying at Imperial College School of Medicine in London in 2002, Dr Mullany had returned to Wales to work at ABM University NHS Trust. She qualified as a paediatrician and in February joined the paediatric department at Singleton Hospital, in Swansea.

On the social networking site Facebook she listed her interests as sewing, cooking, reading and gardening, adding: “Worryingly similar to retired people, now that I think about it.”

Her husband was training in physiotherapy at the University of the West of England in Bristol.

Yesterday Dr Mullany’s parents, David and Rachel Bowen, and brother, Richard, 33, were at the family farm surrounded by pictures of the wedding. The family run a holiday cottage business near Pontardawe.

Mr Mullany’s parents, Kenneth, 56, and Marilyn, 57, a nurse, live in the nearby village of Ystalyfera.

Last night the two families issued a joint statement saying: “We are deeply shocked and devastated at the recent events in Antigua and are struggling to comprehend what has happened to Ben and Catherine. We appreciate the support of our family and friends and would ask the media to respect our privacy at this difficult time.”

British holidaymakers in Antigua were being given advice yesterday on safety by hotel staff, and Baldwin Spencer, the island’s Prime Minister, held emergency meetings with senior politicians and police officers.