British backpacker died after getting 'stuck' between sofas in Victorian hostel

An inquest in the UK has been told a 21-year-old British backpacker died after she collapsed between two sofas in a Victorian hostel.

British woman Kristina Rennell died at Sunset Backpackers in Mildura on June 19 last year.

She had spent six months backpacking around Asia and had been in Australia for only two weeks.

The inquest, which is being held in Reading in the UK, has been unable to determine how the young traveller lost her life, The Mirror reported.

Suffocation and inhalation of vomit were both ruled out as plausible causes, as was alcohol intoxication, the newspaper reported.

Her friend Melissa Newby told the court she discovered her fellow traveller lying unconscious and lying in a convoluted position between the sofas.

“Her body was folded up with her legs up against the wall. Her head looked like it was stuck,” she said.

Ms Rennell’s cause of death remains “unascertained”.