About 100 holidaymakers at an Egyptian hotel where a British couple fell ill and died have returned early to to the UK, Thomas Cook said, as claims circulated of food poisoning and poor hygiene standards.

The tour operator offered flights back to Britain to all of its customers at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic hotel in Hurghada on the Red Sea coast, after the sudden deaths of a Lancashire couple earlier this week.

About half the Britons at the hotel had chosen to cut their holidays short and the rest took up offers of rooms at other nearby hotels, a spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said.

The company had about 300 customers at the Steigenberger. A number of holidaymakers have complained about hygiene at the hotel since the deaths on Tuesday put the issue in the spotlight.

John Cooper, 69, died in his room, and his wife Susan, 63, a Thomas Cook employee, died a short while later in hospital. They were seven days into a 10-day holiday with their daughter and grandchildren.

Kelly Ormerod, who discovered her parents seriously ill after they did not emerge from their room on Tuesday morning, has said she believes that “something suspicious” happened to them.

Egypt’s top prosecutor, however, dismissed speculation on Saturday that the couple had been killed by poisonous gas emissions.

Nabil Sadeq said engineers had inspected the couple’s room and found “all equipment was sound and that there was no leakage or emission of any poisonous or harmful gases”.

“All equipment was working properly and had no faults,” his statement said.



Egyptian officials said on Friday that both deaths were the result of heart failure, but Sadeq said the cause was still not yet clear. His office was waiting for a forensic analysis of samples from their bodies, he said.



Thomas Cook customers arriving at Manchester airport in the early hours of Saturday complained of vomiting, stomach cramps and diarrhoea during their stays at the Steigenberger.

Thomas Cook also said it had received reports of “a raised level of illness among guests”, a suggestion denied by the hotel management.