Rhodes fires: Family flee hotel on foot seeking safety

A glowing sky, the view from the Stafford family's hotel.

A father-of-two has told how he and his family fled their hotel on foot at night after it was evacuated.

Nick Stafford arrived on the Greek island of Rhodes late last Wednesday with his wife and two children, aged seven and 11.

On Saturday night their hotel - the Gennadi Grand Resort - was evacuated.

Mr Stafford, 40. said they took only what they could carry and were "aiming for a resort around seven kilometres (4.3 miles) away".

The family, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, said that when they had walked about halfway towards their destination, a local man offered them a lift.

Nick Stafford said it had been a "stressful"experience

"We ended up in a different hotel, adjacent to the coast, and ending up bedding down there on the hard floor, along with many hundreds of other people."

The next day, the family tried the evacuation centre in Faliraki but it was already full. They then took a public bus to Rhodes Town where they found a room for the night.

On Monday, Mr Stafford attempted to return to their original hotel to collect the rest of their belongings.

However, he said when they got to within about 10 minutes of the hotel " the situation had worsened" and the hotel had once again been emptied and they were "turned around by the police".

"It's certainly been stressful, everyone's in the same boat," he said. "There's no point getting angry."

The family of four was hoping to board a British Airways flight late on Monday evening back to Gatwick Airport.

In a statement, British Airways said "Our teams have been working around the clock to support our customers in Rhodes and have been in constant contact with them to provide assistance.

"We're sorry that the circumstances were so difficult and are glad we were able to rebook the family onto the first flight we are operating from the island since the weekend."

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