Kamikaze beetles?

[Cat]

Yesterday I was at a friend's house, and she was telling me about her Kamikaze beetles.  Seems she was out on her terrace the previous evening, and around 30 or 40 beetles emerged from holes in the ground and started flying around all over the place.  As she had left the door open, nearly all of them flew inside the house, flew around for a bit, and then dropped dead on the floor.

She swept them outside the following morning, and their bodies were about one and a half centimetres long, and about the same colour as a lightly roasted coffee-bean (for want of a better description).  Anyone got an idea as to what they might be?

[daisymay]

Maybugs/cockchafer beetles. Vey stupid, always banging into lighted windows etc. They can be found in England - certainly we had them in Cheshire.

[Megan le Fey]

I had just one of them this morning, also dead.  Coffee beans is a good description.  It reminded me of the nocturnal bugs which used to eat the roses when we lived in South Africa.  Can't remember what they were called but we used to go out and pick them off because we didn't like the chemical stuff for spraying.

Edited

Sorry, tried to delete but too late.  Re-read the original post and your bugs are far too big.  Mine were actually about the same size as a coffee bean as was the one I found this morning.

[Cat]

Thanks daisymay, I googled maybugs, and they look kind of similar, but my friend's beetles didn't have the pointy tails.

Thanks also M le F, they could have been the same thing, I guessed 1 and a half centimetres but I can't find a ruler, so they could have been a bit smaller.  They did look very much like coffee-beans, just a tiny bit bigger.