‘Petrified’ Brits who found themselves at the centre of conflict while sun-seeking in Dubai have told of terrifying missile explosions, rumbling fighter jets and makeshift underground bunkers.
Holidaymakers were greeted by ‘welcome home’ signs and tearful hugs as they made it back to Blighty on Friday evening after escaping the Middle Eastern war zone.
Dubai, said to be ‘the safest city in the world’, has been rocked by unprecedented conflict in recent days amid unrelenting attacks by Iranian kamikaze drones.
Tehran began bombing American military bases across the Middle East on Saturday, February 28, in retaliation to the joint US-Israeli operation to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons.
Strikes on the Iranian capital on Saturday resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei the same day.
Since then the British government has been putting together plans to rescue the more than 140,000 citizens who have registered their presence in the Middle East.
Some Brits trapped in Dubai made it home on Thursday night, landing at Heathrow Airport where family greeted them in emotional reunions.
Sable Cooper, 31, and Brandon Cooper, 34, from Wickford, Essex, had been away for ten days in Dubai with their three children, aged six, two and one.
Sable and Brandon Cooper (front left and right) are given a huge welcome back by their family at London Heathrow after being caught in the middle of the attacks in Dubai
Mrs Cooper hugs her family in Heathrow’s arrivals hall after flying in on Thursday evening with her husband and three children
They were greeted with hugs by their relieved family, bearing signs, after the Virgin Atlantic plane landed at Heathrow.
The family were lucky to make it on the flight they originally bought as some friends on holiday in the Emirati city at the same time had been forced to rebook.
‘It’s been a stressful process because we’ve been travelling with three small children so that added on top of everything else has been extremely difficult,’ Mrs Cooper told the Daily Mail.
‘The hotel were good, they were very helpful, they were very accommodating but obviously, we just wanted to get home as quickly and as safely as we could.’
The Coopers were staying at the iconic Atlantis, The Palm hotel, on the luxurious Palm Jumeirah island resort.
It is only around three miles from the Fairmont The Palm hotel, which is on the same archipelago complex, and was hit by debris from an Iranian missile on Saturday.
Minutes before the first emergency alert came through that day, they opened the doors to their balcony in their 14th-floor room to see a rocket flying across the sky.
‘It looked like a giant firework,’ Mr Cooper said. ‘We were very scared.’
His wife added: ‘We were petrified. Absolutely petrified. We already had emergency bags packed and we just grabbed the children and got down to the ground floor.’
Dramatic footage and images captured the moment the five-star Fairmont The Palm hotel was hit and set ablaze by debris from an Iranian missile
Four people were reported injured in the attack, according to the Dubai media office
An orange aura filled the air as the debris struck the luxury hotel at speed
A conference room below the hotel was converted into a kind of bunker, with the holidaymakers staying at the Atlantis sleeping there at night to stay safe.
‘The first night it happened, we were literally just sleeping on the floor with just some towels,’ Mr Cooper said, given the suddenness of the initial strike.
Hotel staff soon installed tea, coffee and 24-hour food facilities in the space, along with proper beds, which the family slept in on the second of two nights they spent in the makeshift bunker.
They were joined by what they estimated to be 200 other tourists who were staying at the hotel.
The Coopers were eventually moved to a normal room lower down in the building, on the fifth floor, where they stayed safely for the rest of their holiday.
‘They made us very comfortable… They did what they had to do really,’ Mr Cooper said.
Unprecedented footage of drones exploding, hotels burning and missiles being intercepted mid-air has captured the outside world on social media.
But missile sightings have become a regular occurrence for all who are trapped in Dubai, including influencers who moved to the city in search of glamorous, tax-free lifestyles while talking down the UK.
One couple told the Daily Mail how they were ‘right in the middle’ of the terrifying scenes coming out of Dubai.
Angela Clarke and her partner Brian Hill, from Colwyn Bay, north Wales, had returned to Heathrow from a nine-day holiday in Dubai on the same Virgin Atlantic flight as the Coopers.
The cleaning business owner and retiree were staying by the water, a popular tourist hotspot, when they saw their first missile three days into their trip.
Angela Clarke and Brian Hill at London Heathrow after a holiday from hell
A cyclist watches in horror as a supersonic missile launched by Iran falls over Dubai
‘It was pretty terrifying. I saw one of the rockets go over. We were very much by the marina, basically right in the middle of things,’ Ms Clarke said.
‘It started on Saturday afternoon. We went down to the beach and we were walking over by the marina and the bridge when the first drone went off.
‘It looked like a firework. It was pretty terrifying. We didn’t get much sleep at all.
‘Emergency alarms went off on our phones that evening at about 12.30am. Petrified.
‘We were in a hotel where we were on the 19th floor out of 22.
‘And the day after again, that was when my partner saw the rocket outside our hotel go off and more drones intercepted as well. We were quite central.
‘We had a very small swimming pool so we really couldn’t sit out. They were advising people to stay indoors anyway.’
The couple, fortunately, managed to get back to the UK on the original flight they booked. ‘We were lucky,’ Ms Clarke said.
The Iranian-made Shahed drone is said to be able to fly at least five times faster than the speed of sound. Pictured: File photo
‘The security was tight, very, very good. We’re lucky really for the UAE to be knocking those drones out to be honest with you.
‘We were looked after while we were there, by the hotel also.’
Another family told how they ‘just got used to’ the missiles flying overhead as fighter jets scrambled to bring them down – while sun-seekers continued to party on the ground.
Karolina Buhtina and Dominic Adair had also been on a nine-day holiday to Dubai with their three children, returning on the same Virgin Atlantic flight to Heathrow.
They were lucky not to have too many difficulties in their travel and holiday itself – they were staying on Al Marjan Island, which is slightly further out of the centre of Dubai, to the north.
‘Some of my friends who live in Dubai, they were travelling north because where we were, it was quite quiet on the first day,’ Mr Adair said.
‘We didn’t have any disruption to be honest. There was a bit of confusion between the airline and the travel agency about whether we should get on the flight or not but apart from that, it’s been as planned.’
Ms Buhtina added: ‘Luckily, we made it!’
Karolina and Dominic Adair with their two children after landing at Heathrow on Friday
She said the family saw several attacks while they were there: ‘It was so weird because everyone just got used to it.
‘You would hear them, you would hear the bangs in the sky. It’s mad explaining it to someone.
‘You would hear the bangs in the sky and you would look up and see the trails and then jets just flying by.
‘But to be honest, we still went ahead. At our hotel, everyone was always outside. But we did avoid it in the evenings. I was having anxiety, I thought, “I don’t want to stay out at night”, so after dinner, we would just go to bed but everyone was just partying outside.’
Mr Adair added: ‘Some people were panicked, especially when it first started. As the days went on, I think everyone became a bit immune, as mad as it sounds.
‘When the jets first started popping out, you could hear them really rumble through the air.’
Ms Buhtina said: ‘The first time I heard it, we were on the beach with the kids and I heard the bangs. I grabbed the kids, grabbed the stuff and I started running.
‘Everyone was just looking up at the sky and no one was moving apart from me! I said, “Kids!”, I left him, I left him with all the sand toys, everything, and ran inside.’
