Food, water tested at Egyptian hotel where Britons died

Experts are testing food, water and air conditioning systems at an Egyptian resort hotel where a British couple died under mysterious circumstances, the chief executive of travel company Thomas Cook says.

Thomas Cook Group CEO Peter Fankhauser has pledged to find out what happened to John and Susan Cooper, who died at the Steigenberger Aqua Magic Hotel in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada on Tuesday.

The couple’s daughter, Kelly Ormerod, told British media Friday she was suspicious because her parents had been in perfect health hours before they died. She said John Cooper died in his room, and Susan Cooper died after she was taken to the hospital.

Fankhauser tells Britain’s Sky News there was no evidence of carbon monoxide poisoning. Experts “took probes of the food, of the hygienic systems, of water, as well as the air conditioning systems and all those probes are now in Egypt,” he says, adding that the tests would take 10 days to complete.

Thomas Cook evacuated 300 guests from the Aqua Magic as a precaution after the Coopers died and it emerged that 13 other customers had food poisoning.

But the hotel told The Associated Press in an email that there was no increased level of illness there and attributed the couple’s deaths to “natural causes.”

— AP