Payouts over sickness at hotel where tragic Britons were staying

DOZENS of holidaymakers hit by a sickness bug at the Egyptian hotel where a British couple were taken ill and died will be compensated after tests revealed food hygiene failures.

The deaths of John Cooper, 69, and his wife Susan, 64, have not been explained by independent tests commissioned by Thomas Cook, although investigators were barred from the couple’s bedroom.

But extensive testing around the hotel in Hurghada discovered a ‘high level of e-coli and staphylococcus bacteria’.

Yesterday the tour company admitted ‘it was clear from these results that something went wrong in August’ and ‘standards fell below what we expect’.

The bacteria which can cause food poisoning ‘would explain the raised level of illness reported among guests at the hotel during this time’ said a spokesman.

But two scientific experts have concluded that the sickness outbreak related to food hygiene shed no light on the death of the Coopers (pictured), who lived in Burnley. The holiday firm said it is waiting for the results of autopsies in Egypt.

Thomas Cook was widely criticised by hotel guests after last month’s tragedy for failing to take earlier complaints about sickness bugs seriously.

Yesterday the company said the independent testing found no problems with air and water quality at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel.

There was also no evidence of carbon monoxide ‘in the vicinity’ of the Coopers’ room and chlorine levels in swimming pools at the hotel were normal.

Last night the couple’s daughter Kelly Ormerod, who had been on holiday with them, told Granada TV she fears a coverup to protect Egypt’s tourism industry.

The mother-of-three added her parents had been ‘fit and healthy’. She also told how her own daughter had complained of a smell in her parents’ room which had made her feel unwell.