Gas leak did not cause Thomas Cook deaths, says chief prosecutor
Attorney general dismisses speculation over British couple who died during Egypt resort holiday
EGYPT’S chief prosecutor has dismissed fears that poisonous gases in a hotel room caused the deaths of two British tourists at a Red Sea resort.
In a statement yesterday, Nabil Sadeq, the country’s attorney general, declared that an examination of the room where John and Susan Cooper were staying in Hurghada had led his “technical team” to rule out any suggestion of a toxic or harmful gas leak.
Kelly Ormerod, the daughter of the Burnley couple, had earlier dismissed claims by the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel that the pair died from natural causes. She insisted that there was “something suspicious” about their deaths last Tuesday, adding that “something has happened in that room and caused them to be taken from us.”
Mrs Ormerod, who was on the Thomas Cook holiday with her parents, said the couple “were in perfect health” when they went to bed. When she went to their room the next morning they were both complaining of being “extremely ill”. Mr Cooper, 69, died in the room and Mrs Cooper, 63, a Thomas Cook employee, died hours later after being taken to hospital.
A source at the hotel, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it took the hotel doctor seven minutes to get to the couple after the alarm was raised.
“They called the front desk for help,” the source said. “The doctor in the hotel was seeing someone else. When he finished, he went to the room. Mr Cooper was suffering from a heart attack. He passed away in his room.”
The deaths led to speculation that the couple had died from either food poisoning or a leak into the room. A number of other holidaymakers had complained that they had suffered illness after eating the hotel food.
Records kept by the hotel’s medical clinic show that in a seven-day period up to last Thursday, 26 of the 1,995 hotel guests required medical attention after suffering from gastroenteritis.
Of those, four were British holidaymakers. The average time to recover from the illness was one day, the document shows. The Egyptian foreign ministry, which released the papers, claimed it shows just 1.3 per cent of the hotel population had fallen ill, a figure they stressed was “low”. A further 12 people visited the hotel’s pharmacy to obtain medication for upset stomachs.
The results of forensic analysis of samples taken from the couple’s bodies have yet to be published. Thomas Cook yesterday completed the evacuation of 301 of its customers from the Steigenberger hotel, a move it described as a “precautionary measure” after further reports of a raised level of illness among guests.
The company said it had “expanded” its investigation into the deaths of the Coopers by contacting all those who had recently returned from the hotel, as well as setting up a dedicated team to prioritise complaints related to the hotel. It said circumstances of the deaths were “unclear” and that it had received reports of “a raised level of illness among guests.”
The hotel was last audited by the tour company in late July and received an overall score of 96 per cent.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We continue to support the family of a couple who died in Hurghada, Egypt, and remain in contact with Thomas Cook. Anyone staying at the Steinberger Aqua Magic Hotel should follow the advice of their tour operator and the local authorities.”
“Something happened in that room and caused them to be taken from us”