Several Brits who landed at Heathrow Airport spoke of the “terrifying” recent days they have experienced in United Arab Emirates since the US and Israel struck Iran
Relieved Brits arrived back home yesterday on the only flight back so far from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since the Iran attacks.
Photographs show the tourist hug loved ones at Heathrow Airport after landing on the Etihad Airways plane at around 7pm on Monday. US and Israel struck Iran on Saturday, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and prompting a furious Iranian response.
Isabel Robertson, 29, was greeted with a hug from mother Alba. The 29-year-old woman had been staying with friends in Dubai, which has come under repeated attack by the Iranian regime. Isabel, a dancer from Windsor, Berkshire, said: “I had such a great week. I had meant to have been leaving on Saturday. My friend was going to drive me to the airport. I was like ‘Why has my flight been cancelled?’ Ten minutes later I could hear an explosion.
“There were explosions this morning. It has been terrifying, like honestly, terrifying. The noises, it was terrifying, the explosions. I used to live there and it was my first time back in three years.”
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Other people remain stuck in Dubai, a Brit holiday hotspot, and have seen bombs fall following the start of the conflict. Multiple families, including those who had travelled to the sun-kissed city on holiday or to visit relatives, told the Mirror of their struggles to get home.
But those who did make the first evacuation flight on Monday expressed their gratitude. Amy Maguire, 23, who had gone on holiday with her baby daughter Anabel and her parents, said: “It has been horrifying.
“It has been really difficult not knowing if your child is safe. The sounds have been horrendous. We had to go in this little room under the hotel.”
The Daily Mail reports Fay McCaul, 41, was due to leave the UAE for London on Saturday. Fay said “sirens started going off” and people were told “to stay away from windows because of potential missile strikes” when she was waiting for her flight.
She said: “It was just taking ages to board, with no announcements, so we didn’t know what was going on. And then after the boarding time sirens started going off in the airport and everyone started receiving texts on their phones with alarm signals to stay away from windows because of potential missile strikes. So then it was pretty chaotic, and the airline obviously didn’t know what was going on either.”
Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said today there are around 300,000 British citizens in Gulf countries targeted by Iran. Sir Keir Starmer and his ministers are understood to be drawing up contingency plans to evacuate them over land from the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar to Saudi Arabia.
