Child-snatching gang dressed as waiters caught luring British kids into cars at Thomas Cook Cyprus resort

Tour operator Thomas Cook has since moved around 60 families into another hotel for their childrens' safety, it has been claimed

 

A gang dressed as waiters tried to snatch children from a hotel packed with British holidaymakers.
Three youngsters were being lured into cars when the child-snatchers were caught.
A holidaymaker at the Cyprus resort with a wedding party from Dundee said: “We had seen these people around the hotel all week. They’d been in the pool and interacting with some of the children.
“Some of them were wearing staff outfits so they could blend in more easily. It was really scary.”
Dad Greg Letford, 28, told how the gang – who staff claimed were Romanians – targeted kids on Tuesday night.

Busy: The hotel was packed with Brits attending a wedding party

He told the Daily Record: “This Romanian couple were leading the two young children towards a waiting car, another person had a third child up against a wall ready to go, too.
“Someone spotted what they were up to and stopped them. If he hadn’t been there those kids would have gone.
“One of the men got away and we heard the getaway car crashed a short distance away too."
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Chaos: Holidaymakers called police to the resort in Cyprus

“When the police turned up, they took the man and woman into an office in the hotel and a crowd built up in the foyer – there must have been about 60 or 70 really angry people. It was chaos.
“The police got them into a van through a window for their protection. One of the hotel staff later told us they were Romanian and that one of them used to work at the hotel.”
The children involved in the drama at the Anastasia Beach Complex, near Protaras, were all under 10.
Dad-of-two Greg was staying there as part of the 25-strong wedding party.
He told how members of his group gave statements to police, who also took cameras and phones from the two suspects.
Tour operators Thomas Cook have since moved about 60 British and Irish holidaymakers from the hotel amid fears for children’s safety.
After they were spotted, the alleged abductors were grabbed, frogmarched to the hotel office and handed over to police.
Alarmed holidaymakers organised their own round-the-clock safety patrol of the hotel grounds to protect their children.
It is understood that a gang of at least 10 men and women had been scoping out the plush hotel for the last week.
Parents staying at the hotel in Protaras can't relax after the attempted abductions
They were spotted filming and taking photographs of the children as they played in the pool and it is claimed some wore waiters’ outfits to blend in to their surroundings.

Terror: Witnesses said the alleged child-snatchers were dressed as waiters

Police maintained a security presence at the hotel throughout yesterday as they investigated the allegations.
A member of the Dundee group said: “What should have been a fantastic wedding has turned into a bit of a nightmare.
“Just thinking of what might have happened to those children makes your stomach flip. After it happened, we started patrolling around the accommodation to keep an eye out for them again. We just couldn’t take chances.”
The Anastasia Beach Complex is run by Thomas Cook and is on the eastern tip of Cyprus. It has 191 rooms and 50 studios and apartments.
On the company website it is described as being “a perfect family choice”. It has a kids’ splash pool, water park and a lazy river.
Holidaymakers, who were mainly from Scotland and Ireland, were offered a new hotel in nearby Paphos by Thomas Cook.
Greg praised the speedy and professional way Thomas Cook’s reps handled the difficult situation and tried to calm fears.
They arranged return flights to the UK for those families directly affected by the attempted abductions and agreed to move others who didn’t feel safe.

Fears: Thomas Cook has offered guests new rooms at a nearby Paphos hotel

Greg’s party were transferred from Protaras to a five-star hotel in Paphos, a three-hour coach ride away, yesterday morning. A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said the company were taking the incident extremely seriously.
She said: “Thomas Cook have requested an increased and immediate security presence at the hotel.
“The safety and welfare of our customers is always our first priority and, upon hearing about the incident, we immediately deployed our experienced resort team to the property to provide those customers in residence with individual support.
“Customers who did not wish to stay at the property were moved to alternative hotels of a similar or higher standard.
“While incidents of this nature are extremely rare, we would like to reassure all customers that this is being taken seriously and we are continuing to work closely with the local authorities and the hotel as the investigation continues.
“Any customers with concerns about future holidays at this hotel are asked to contact us directly so we can deal with them personally and directly.”
A Thomas Cook insider said: “We have a lot of reps on the ground out there to support people.
“Our teams will be liaising with the authorities and the hotel.
“But it becomes a police matter once the police are called, which is the understanding in this case.”

Support: Thomas Cook said they are taking the matter extremely seriously

Police in Cyprus initially denied any incident had taken place and said their officers had never attended at the Anastasia – despite the Daily Record emailing them photographs of squad cars outside the main entrance.
We then contacted the Cypriot High Commission in London to clarify the situation.
A short time later, a representative told us to retry the police in Cyprus who now had “information about the incident”.
The same police spokesman in Cyprus – who had earlier denied any involvement – confirmed officers did attend but said that it was all a “misunderstanding”.
He claimed a 19-year-old man had been seen filming a show at the hotel and was “attacked” by 50 or 60 holidaymakers and officers had to remove him for his own safety.