A family has told how their dream holiday descended into hell after an intruder broke into their hotel room.
Leanne and Dean Louis had been anticipating a holiday of a lifetime with their four kids after the couple booked with TUI to Aqua Mirage Hotel in Marrakech. At first, the family were impressed by the huge waterpark that the travel agency had to offer at all-inclusive resort.
But the foreign getaway soon turned into chaos after a stranger made their way into the family's hotel room, Lancaster Live reports. With half of the kids sleeping in the parents' room and half next door with a family friend, Leanne's terror was so severe that she banged on the wall to alert them with so much force that her knuckles bled.
They were then left too scared to sleep or enjoy the rest of the holiday. Leanne, who runs a sweets business in Lancaster, said: "It was like in Scream when you see the black shadow go past. It was terrifying."
The family had spent the day within the hotel complex and before going to sleep, Leanne said she made sure all the doors and windows were locked. On the first day, she said the patio door had no handle but could be prised open, while it was fully locked the second day and by the next, a new handle had been fitted while they were outside the room.
Leanne said: "I fell asleep and then 10-20 minutes later I was like 'what the hell?'. At first I didn't know if I was dreaming and then I noticed the curtain and the door was wide open and said to Dean 'you need to wake up'." Dean's jumped out of bed, I could see there was a black shape and when Dean moved, they've gone to the front door and ran out."
When the commotion was over, the couple noticed that the family's swimwear which had been laid out to dry had been knocked to the floor and the safe had been opened, although luckily they had not used it. Their son's Nintendo Switch had also been moved outside of the room.
According to Leanne, the hotel security refused to believe what had happened and watched on silently as he banged on the room's walls. She said they showed where the bushes outside their room had been trampled but they were not still offering no help. Meanwhile the reception staff assured them that security would monitor their room through the rest of the night by Leanne never saw them again.
The couple's friend said that she heard a woman upstairs screaming later that night and had allegedly seen someone running past her room. Leanne said the family were left terrified and that the kids - who are aged 8 to 13, did not sleep properly for the rest of the holiday.
"We were all traumatised," she said. "It ruined the whole holiday because we didn't want to do anything, we were just so traumatised and tired with it all.
"They tried to say it was someone from the outside but if you're security's as good as you say, and it is good with massive metal gates, how was somebody getting in?"
The family spoke with a TUI rep the following morning who took a statement. On their last day, the family say they were told the CCTV backed up what they said and that the matter had been referred to the local police.
Leanne and Dean hope to take the kids away again to make up for the sorry experience but they do not plan to return to Morocco. "In the hotel, we felt like we were in a normal place with good nightlife bit as soon as you step outside the complex, it was like a warzone.
"It was my family's first holiday, they'd never been abroad before. It was a holiday from hell."
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