A fleet of ambulances was waiting at Chek Lap Kok as 23 holidaymakers returned to Hong Kong yesterday at the end of a tour of Malaysia and Singapore marred by an outbreak of food poisoning.
The patients, aged between eight and 75, were taken to Yan Chai and Princess Margaret hospitals. Some had to be carried on stretchers or in wheelchairs. All of the 30 people who joined the tour on Wednesday fell in. Thirteen women and 10 men returned to the SAR yesterday.
Another SAR couple was still in a hospital in Singapore last night.
Of those who returned to Hong Kong, two men, aged 30 and 33, were admitted in a stable condition and another seven were still under observation at Princess Margaret Hospital. The rest returned home after treatment.
The four-night package tour, organised by the Morning Star Travel Service, cost $3,599 for adults and $3,199 for children.
A tour member said the group ate two seafood meals in Malaysia and several tourists felt unwell after the first one.
'Some people felt sick in Malaysia, some in Singapore. They vomited and had stomach aches. Several of them also had a fever,' he said.