A STUDENT plunged to her death in a parachute accident in south west France, the Foreign Office have confirmed.

Susan Westwood, 23, a postgraduate student of mechanical engineering at Leeds University, died attempting a jump at Soulac-sur-Mer, near Bordeaux, a department spokesman said.

The accident on Monday afternoon took place during a trip believed to have been organised by the university, he added.

Witnesses said Miss Westwood, from Billingham, Teesside, became tangled in the ropes of her main parachute and opened her reserve chute too late to slow her fall.

Eric Boisgrollier, from the Soulac-sur-Mer parachute club, said: ''We could see her kicking to get her legs free so the main chute would open.

''She released the reserve chute, but too late.

''It did not open in time and she was still falling fast when she hit the ground.''

French police were treating the incident as an accident, the spokesman added.

The Foreign Office and the British Consulate General in Bordeaux have contacted Miss Westwood's family.

Updated:11.45 Wednesday, June 20