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| First British holidaymakers return from The Gambia | First British holidaymakers return from The Gambia |
| (about 5 hours later) | |
| The first flights carrying British tourists evacuated from The Gambia have arrived back in the UK. | The first flights carrying British tourists evacuated from The Gambia have arrived back in the UK. |
| Thomas Cook will run 11 flights, including nine extra departures, to evacuate people over the next two days. | |
| The Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the capital Banjul and against all but essential travel to the rest of the West African country. | The Foreign Office has advised against all travel to the capital Banjul and against all but essential travel to the rest of the West African country. |
| Gambian President Yahya Jammeh has missed the deadline to hand over power, despite threats of military action. | |
| Two Thomas Cook planes returned to Manchester airport on Wednesday night, and another was due back in the early hours of Thursday. | |
| Two additional flights were also expected to land at Gatwick. | |
| Four additional flights, as well as a scheduled one, will land in the UK on Thursday, returning about 1,000 customers to Gatwick, Manchester and Birmingham airports. | |
| Thomas Cook said it had brought back 1,038 customers from The Gambia on Wednesday. | |
| Returning holidaymakers have been speaking about the situation in the country. | |
| Sara Wilkins, from Shropshire, said: "Last night it all got a bit too serious - all the restaurants shut down, all the shops shut down - and it got really scary. | Sara Wilkins, from Shropshire, said: "Last night it all got a bit too serious - all the restaurants shut down, all the shops shut down - and it got really scary. |
| "The local people were crying and worried about their children, and they've got no work now because there's no tourists, so I don't know how they're going to survive." | "The local people were crying and worried about their children, and they've got no work now because there's no tourists, so I don't know how they're going to survive." |
| "We're just relieved to be back." | "We're just relieved to be back." |
| Alan Harper, from Warrington, said: "We went out on a trip on Monday and the Gambian people getting on the ferry were carrying all their possessions. | Alan Harper, from Warrington, said: "We went out on a trip on Monday and the Gambian people getting on the ferry were carrying all their possessions. |
| "It was a real struggle to get on the ferry. Everybody was just fleeing. We thought then that something was seriously wrong. | "It was a real struggle to get on the ferry. Everybody was just fleeing. We thought then that something was seriously wrong. |
| "We went out on Wednesday night to a Chinese restaurant and they said, 'We're closing within the hour,' so we had to have our main course and get straight out. | |
| "All the Gambian people who worked there were coming straight out because they were frightened to death. They were hurrying home." | "All the Gambian people who worked there were coming straight out because they were frightened to death. They were hurrying home." |
| Gambian Ebrima Jagne, a textile engineer who works in Burnley, Lancashire, arrived at Manchester airport on one of the flights, but was concerned for his wife Haddytouray and their three-month-old daughter, Ajiamina Jane, whom he is trying to get out of the country. | |
| He said everyone in the country felt "unsafe" and "on edge... because you don't know what's going to come next". | |
| "I cannot get my daughter out," he added. "I'm desperate. It's not easy at all when I leave my wife there and daughter." | |
| Elicia Gardner, a teacher at the Portland School in Stoke-on-Trent, had been on a week's volunteering with three pupils and another teacher. | |
| "A lot of people out there are quite worried, and we are worried for our friends out there, the Gambian people who were taking care of us while we were out there," she said. | |
| Hotel 'chaos' | |
| Other passengers described the rush at hotels to get them out. | |
| Pensioner Sue Thrower, from Doncaster, said she found out about the evacuation through someone she met on holiday. | |
| "If it hadn't been for that young woman of 28 with her smartphone talking to her mum back home, we wouldn't have known we had to pack after breakfast this morning and be ready." | |
| Ralph Newton, from Nottingham, said: "We didn't get communication until this morning [Tuesday], 9am, you've got to leave, the reps are coming at 10am. | |
| "No reps came, the coaches came and then it was just a bit of chaos, but they did their best at the airport." | |
| Thomas Cook is now offering free amendments or cancellations for holidays to The Gambia up to and including 31 January. | |
| Mr Jammeh had been told to leave office by the end of Wednesday and hand over to last month's election winner, Adama Barrow, who is currently in Senegal. | Mr Jammeh had been told to leave office by the end of Wednesday and hand over to last month's election winner, Adama Barrow, who is currently in Senegal. |
| Senegal has moved troops towards the Gambian border in an effort to force Mr Jammeh to accept electoral defeat and step down. | |
| The threat of military action is supported by Nigeria and other states in the region. | |
| At least 26,000 Gambians have sought refuge in Senegal this week amid fears that violence could erupt. | |
| Mr Jammeh has ruled The Gambia since taking power in a coup in 1994. | Mr Jammeh has ruled The Gambia since taking power in a coup in 1994. |