Merseyside holidaymakers return from swine-flu hit Mexico

MERSEYSIDE holidaymakers caught up in the swine flu outbreak in Mexico have spoken of “controlled panic” as they flew back to the UK yesterday.

Among the 300 on board Thomson’s scheduled flight to Manchester from Cancun yesterday were Lindsey McDonnell, 26, partner Graham Watkin, 26, and their seven-month-old son Ben

Ms McDonnell, from Walton, said: “We first saw what was happening around us on the television watching American news. We didn’t think anything of it.

“It didn’t affect us at first at all. Then we heard it had moved to Cancun, and that made us panic a little bit. My mum was very worried, and I had to reassure her, but it was when staff at the hotel started wearing masks that we noticed anything.

“That was a bit scary as we had Ben with us. We’re relieved to be back but we did have a good holiday.” Sandra Douglas, 32, was worried enough to join 90 tourists on a one-off repatriation flight laid on by Thomson from Cancun yesterday.

Ms Douglas, of south Liverpool, cut short her holiday once the scale of the pandemic became clearer.

She said: “We were given a debrief as we landed.

“A health protection officer read from a script giving us advice and we were given leaflets.

“But there hasn’t been very good information out there. I was expecting to be bombarded when we arrived, but it hasn’t happened.”