Mystery illness hits school trip to WWI battlefields
Nearly 50 British schoolchildren and their teachers were rushed to hospital from a Belgium ferry terminal after they fell ill while on their way home from a tour of WWI battlefields.
Reports said pupils and staff from the school in Leeds, West Yorkshire were suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea and had been taken to seven different hospitals with assistance from the Red Cross.
The students from Guiseley school apparently became ill at Zeebrugge where they were due to catch a ferry home from their GCSE history battlefields trip in France and Belgium.
The pupils are all Year 11 students, aged 15-16.
Leeds city council said 46 of 80 students on the trip were taken ill, along with two of the eight members of staff accompanying them.
23 pupils were discharged from hospital after checkups, and the remainder are expected to be discharged later today.
It is still unclear whether the illness was caused by a virus or food poisoning but it is not believed to be contagious.
Those who were not taken ill were quarantined in the ferry terminal before being transferred to a youth hostel, where they were looked after by extra staff from the school. Those well enough will return to the UK on Tuesday night.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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