Carme Chacón, Zapatero's defence minister, dies aged 46

She was just 46 years old.

Sra Chacón became the first female minister of defence in 2008 and attracted criticism for her president, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, when she famously walked on the front line in Afghanistan whilst heavily pregnant.

A year before her defence role, she had served as minister for housing in 2007 under the then socialist government.

Her young son was with his dad, Carme's ex-husband Miguel Barroso, at the time of her death.

She had just come back from Madrid from Miami and was due to meet a group of people for lunch on Sunday, but did not turn up.

When her friends were unable to reach her, they rang the 112 emergency hotline at around 19.30 and police and firefighters broke into her house.

She was last seen in public at a tribute in the Council of Ministers for her predecessor under Zapatero, José Antonio Alonso, who died from lung cancer on February 2.

Chacón, a fireman's daughter, had given up politics in the last year to concentrate on the solicitors' firm she ran in Madrid.

It is thought she died from natural causes, since Carme had a congenital heart condition.

She was very open about her problem, which is popularly known as a 'backwards heart' and which she learnt about at age 10.

As well as being backwards, her heart was affected by an obstructed ventricle – but due to huge advances in medical science, she lived a completely normal life.

Carme even played basketball regularly, something she described as 'her great passion'.

During her reign as defence minister, in February 2011, Carme ran an awareness campaign about congenital heart conditions, and in November 2016 actively took part in the first-ever National Congress of the Spanish Association for Sudden Death (AEMS) in Valencia.

Floods of condolences and heart-wrenching messages have appeared on Twitter and Facebook from her socialist (PSOE) colleagues, who are inconsolable.