BUTLINS in Minehead was still recovering this week after more than 200 people were stuck down by a 24-hour airborne bug which swept through the camp.

Scores of visitors, many of them children, and staff contracted the unpleasant but not fatal Norwalk virus whose symptoms include severe sickness and diarrhoea.

Last Friday the chalets were fumigated and thoroughly cleaned for the new intake of holidaymakers while around 100 who were due to stay into a second week were sent home with refunds.

Staff were put in isolation to try to contain the virus while meals and other essentials were delivered to their rooms.

Meanwhile, guests who arrived last weekend were fuming for not being warned by Butlins before they left home that the bug had been spreading through the camp.

Bosses at Butlins insist there was no way of informing everyone of the situation but insist visitors are safe and there was no question of the camp closing.

Health officials have been at the camp since last week's outbreak and have taken samples for laboratory analysis.

The outbreak is a carbon copy of last summer when the same virus left around 80 people suffering from vomiting and diarrhoea.

Resort director Bryan Leaker said the number of new cases diagnosed every day was down to single figures while most of the guests affected by the virus had gone home.

"While last week there were 195 reported cases of the virus, this has now dropped significantly as many people left last weekend," he said.

"Because the symptoms of the bug can last between 24 and 48 hours we decided to keep our staff in quarantine because we did not want it spreading to other guests.

"We look after staff and bring them food and drink, magazines and cigarettes if they need them and make sure they rest up and drink as much water as possible."

Mr Leaker said it would have been impossible to have informed all the guests last week before they set off from home but the centre did everything possible to keep guests informed of the situation.

"The number of people who fell ill represented less than one and a half per cent of the people at the resort," he said.

"It is very difficult to get in touch with 8,000 people but we put notices on the gates and made sure everyone was given letters to ensure they had all the information they required."