David Breakspear apparently took ecstasy to go to the Exodus nightclub in Penzance. He collapsed and was found in the toilets.

His parents, with whom he lived in Cornwall, were at his bedside when he died.

Detective Sergeant Malcolm Reed of Devon and Cornwall Police said the man seemed to have become dehydrated.

He added: "We do not know the quantity of the drug he took but it may just have been one tablet."

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall police said: "Police were notified of the death of the victim in hospital this morning.

"The parents of the victim were at the hospital. At the present time an intensive police inquiry is focusing on the possibility that the death was due to factors linked to the taking of the drug known as ecstasy and trying to establish how the deceased came to be in possession of the substance.