Hotel’s ‘terror attack’ prank terrifies guests

A holiday company has apologised after hotel staff in Turkey staged an apparent mock terrorist “attack” to entertain guests.

The joke backfired as one British holidaymaker said he was left “terrified” by the stunt at the Grand Yazici Mares hotel in Icmeler last Thursday.

The incident came just six weeks after Islamic State terrorist Seifeddine Rezgui Yacoubi killed 38 people, 30 of them British holidaymakers, in Tunisia.

Electrician Jason Pythian, 43, from Manchester, said he was among dozens of British tourists lounging by the pool when gun-toting mock Arab terrorists dressed in Middle Eastern outfits and army gear appeared.

Mr Pythian told The Sun only after they ran for their lives fearing a massacre did they realise it was a prank.

He told the newspaper: “We were so relieved — it was the hotel’s idea of entertainment for the day. They thought it was funny to run around the pool dressed as terrorists. One ran up to me with a bucket with ‘Fuel’ written on the side. He threw it over me and got out a cigarette lighter. I jumped up, not knowing what on Earth was going on. It was disgusting to try and make light of Tunisia in that way.”

He was in a party of six who had booked their stay with Jet2holidays . The group also included Jason’s wife Maureen, her sister Dawn Sutton, 41, and her husband, David, and son Tyler, 9.

Icmeler is less than 650km from the war-torn border with Syria, much of the country in the hands of IS.

A spokeswoman for Jet2holidays, said: “We are sorry to hear about the distress experienced by the Sutton family and on hearing this we immediately spoke to the hotel management. They have assured us it was never their intention to cause any offence or upset with their entertainment programme.

“This was a Hollywood- themed poolside show, which included the characters Rambo and Superman, and it is always well received by the hotel’s residents. The hotel management now understands that some of the costumes may have caused offence and they will no longer use these in their shows.”

However a comment on Mail Online by another holidaymaker played down the incident: “The Hollywood Theme pool entertainment could have been seen as insensitive but was in no way scary as the entertainers all had comedy make-up and a commentator was providing a running commentary.”