FRIENDS and family of a 16-year-old Hampshire student who died suddenly have gathered to light candles and release balloons in her memory.

Dace Jankovica died in hospital after being taken there from the East Close Hotel in Hinton in the New Forest.

Now her schoolfriends have joined with Dace’s mother in the Lower Gardens, Bournemouth, where they released heartshaped balloons marked with personal messages, and lit tealights to spell out “RIP Dace”.

Many brought flowers to lay at the impromptu memorial to the Brockenhurst College pupil, close to the Bournemouth Balloon.

“We wanted to do this as soon as we heard the news, to say goodbye together in our own way,” said 16-year-old Saskia Ramsey, a close friend of Dace from her days at St Aldhelm’s Academy in Rossmore.

Saskia organised the event with the help of another of Dace’s close friends, Sophie Herschy, 17.

She said: “She was a lovely girl, really down to earth, she always made people laugh.

“She would always put her friends before herself.

“She was so thoughtful and a great friend.”

The group also lit a number of Chinese lanterns, which they let off one-by-one.

Dace, originally from Latvia, was a former pupil of Highcliffe School, who left this summer after completing her GCSEs, and went on to study at Brockenhurst.

The cause of her death is currently unknown and is being investigated by the coroner, although there are not believed to have been any suspicious circumstances.