UPDATED: Maldives bomb explosion injures 12 tourists
Seven people have been arrested following a bomb attack in the Maldives on Saturday.
The bomb exploded in a park in the capital Male and injured 12 tourists, including a British couple believed to have been on their honeymoon.
The other tourists were from Japan and China.
The British victims have been named as Christian Donelan, 36, from Rotherham, and his wife Jennifer, whose maiden name is Green, who both now live in Qatar.
According to local police, they were the most seriously injured but all victims are now in a stable condition.
All those arrested were Maldives nationals and, according to reports, some were caught trying to flee the country.
It is the first time a bomb has hit the Maldives and neither the motive or target are yet known.
The Maldivian Deputy Minister for Tourism Mr Zakariyya today said UK tour operators were reporting that it is business as usual following the incident.
“There have been no noticeable holiday cancellations,” he said.
“Given the Maldives’ unique geographical layout of one resort per island it is highly unlikely that tourism to the country will suffer. As of today, the capital remains calm and in all resorts the pace of life continues to remain tranquil.
“This is the first incident of its kind in the history of the Maldives and we see this as an isolated incident. The Maldives government is assisting with the medical evacuation costs of the two injured Britons who will be returning to Manchester for their medical care tomorrow.
“On behalf of the Maldivean government and the Tourism Promotion Board, I would like to thank the UK travel industry for its consistent support in sending the tens of thousands of British holiday makers to our beautiful country every year.”
Kuoni Travel, a major tour operator to the Maldives, confirmed that all its clients are safe and well and all holidays are continuing as normal.
Director of customer services Francis Torrilla said: “We wish a speedy recovery to those individuals who were unfortunately caught up in the attack.
“The Maldives is currently our number one longhaul destination. At this stage it is too early to say whether there will be a significant impact on tourism to the region.
“As a destination it is quite unique in that it is made of up of many small islands, some of which are dedicated to tourism.
“Most clients spend their entire holiday on their resort island, so a holiday experience there is a real island escape, where you feel far removed from everyday life, and most do not visit Male, but transit through the nearby airport island to their resort.
“The Maldives has proved to be very resilient in the past – and was the first of the regions hit by the tsunami to see full recovery.
“In addition, we are finding that travellers are more resilient than in the past to international incidents such as this, so we are optimistic that tourism to this beautiful and extremely popular part of the world will continue as normal.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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