Police boarded the SS Karnak yesterday following reports of a fatal shooting in a first-class cabin. Linnet Ridgeway-Doyle, believed to be one of the wealthiest young women in England and recently married in France to Mr. Simon Doyle, was found dead in her berth, having been shot through the temple at close range while she slept. She was twenty-six years of age.

Mr. Doyle, who had himself sustained a gunshot wound to the leg the previous evening in a separate incident, was found insensible in another part of the vessel and is being treated for his injury. The circumstances of the two incidents, and their possible connexion, are understood to be a central matter of the inquiry.

Among the passengers aboard the Karnak at the time was the celebrated Belgian detective M. Hercule Poirot, who has been called upon to assist the Egyptian authorities in establishing the sequence of events. Colonel Race, also present, is understood to be co-operating fully with the investigation. All passengers and crew have been requested to remain aboard until the matter is resolved.

Miss Ridgeway-Doyle had been the object of unwanted attention during the voyage from a Miss Jacqueline de Bellefort, formerly engaged to Mr. Doyle, who had been observed following the couple since their arrival in Egypt. The full particulars of the case are not yet known to this correspondent.