A woman has jumped to her death as bailiffs approached to evict her from her fourth-floor apartment in Spain for failing to pay the mortgage.

It was the second apparent suicide linked to evictions, highlighting the dire conditions in which many Spaniards find themselves as the country's economy sinks. The government recently created a task force to study how to reduce evictions due to tough mortgage rules amid growing unease on the subject.

The 53-year-old woman, who has not been named, threw herself from her balcony in a suburb of Bilbao.