Rhodes tourists return home to Newmarket after emotional holiday

Katie Piercefield-Holmes, with her family from Newmarket, said staff at the hotel were they stayed were "amazing" and she could not "explain how grateful we are to them"

A family has returned home after an "emotional" and traumatising Rhodes holiday that was curtailed by wildfires on the Greek island.

Katie Piercefield-Holmes and her family, from Newmarket in Suffolk, decided to lock themselves in the Princess Andriana hotel in Kiotari.

They were flown home on Wednesday night by their tour operator. They were originally due home on Saturday.

She said she could not fully relax until their plane touched down.

The fire on the hillside behind the Princess Andriana has destroyed some of the hotel's buildings

Rhodes has battled wildfires fanned by strong winds since Tuesday, as Europe dealt with a heatwave.

Thousands of holidaymakers and residents have had to flee popular destinations in the past week.

Katie and Brett Piercefield-Holmes, their two children, aged 11 and seven, and Mr Piercefield-Holmes' parents, were the only family left in the hotel, as they had initially decided to stay.

Fire on the hillside behind the Princess Andriana destroyed some of the hotel's buildings, including the kids club and sports facilities, but two other hotels on the hill have burned down.

The wildfire - as seen from the family's hotel room - was mainly on the hillside behind the hotel

Mrs Piercefield-Holmes said her tour operator Jet2 called her on Wednesday morning asking if they wished to leave the island.

She told BBC Radio Suffolk that just 20 minutes away from their hotel "it was business as usual".

"People were out on their holidays, they're drinking, riding mopeds, the bars are open and the hotels are open."

The family previously said the situation in Rhodes "felt very surreal and almost apocalyptic"

"I can't express how grateful we are to them [the hotel staff], they made sure we had water - access to food", she said.

"The kindness of those people, when their homes were being burnt and destroyed, if it hadn't been for them we wouldn't have had shelter.

"Until we touched down, I don't think I relaxed properly, we were all quite emotional [and] traumatised by what happened, a bit sleep deprived."

The kids club and sports facilities at the hotel have been destroyed

Jet2 said all flights and holidays to Rhodes remain cancelled up to and including 30 July.

It said: "We continue to fly aircraft to Rhodes with no customers onboard, so that we can bring our customers back to the UK on their scheduled flights, as well as any additional Jet2 customers who wish to return to the UK."

It thanked its customers for their "patience, understanding and loyalty".