All but four of a group of 50 children and staff from a UK school taken to hospital after they became ill on a trip to Belgium have been discharged.
The 46 pupils, aged between 15 and 16, and four staff from Guiseley school in Leeds were reported to be suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea and had been taken to seven different hospitals with assistance from the Red Cross.
They apparently became ill as they approached the Zeebrugge ferry terminal on their way home from a GCSE history trip to the battlefields of France and Belgium.
Paul Clayton, acting co-headteacher of the school, said 76 of the 80 students on the Year 11 trip were heading back to Yorkshire.
“A small number of students, whose symptoms developed later than others in our party, will be kept in hospital tonight and monitored before hopefully returning home tomorrow.
“We will continue to provide support to the students travelling home today and to those remaining in hospital. We are also maintaining close contact with parents and carers to keep them fully updated on the situation.
“We would also like to thank the Zeebrugge authorities and medical staff for their tremendous help and care.”
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 initially quarantined in the ferry terminal before being transferred to a youth hostel, with extra school staff sent to look after them.
A video on the Belgian website Het Laatste Nieuws showed numerous ambulances with flashing lights outside the P&O ferry terminal and medics transferring a patient on a stretcher into one of the vehicles.
The school also posted a message on its website urging parents to get in touch if they were concerned. One father said the school had been “really good in terms of communication” and was pleased more staff had been sent to Belgium.
He said he thought one or two children started to get diarrhoea early on the second day of the trip but things got much worse as they were returning home.
“My son’s been discharged now and he’s not been too worried but I’m sure some children and some parents will have been a lot more concerned. I think one problem is that some parents have not known where their kids are as they’ve been spread around about seven hospitals.”
Another father described the communication from the school as “appalling” but praised the way the situation had been handled in Belgium.
He said he got a phone call from his 15-year-old daughter at about 5pm on Monday, telling him that she and the rest of those on the trip would not be getting the overnight ferry as some of them were being sick.
He said: “They started dropping, every 10 or 15 minutes another pupil was being sick. They were told they weren’t allowed on and got a police escort to a hostel after waiting for a bus driver. I think the way they’ve handled it over there has been fine.”
He said he received a call from the school about three hours later and two texts on Tuesday, the latest saying some students would return by ferry on Tuesday night.
