Holidaymakers sleeping on school floors after being evacuated from Rhodes hotels

One woman said she had landed in Rhodes after her hotel had been closed due to the fires

Holidaymakers have told of having to sleep on floors of school halls and hotel conference rooms after tourism companies continued to allow flights to land on the fire-hit Greek island of Rhodes even as evacuation was taking place.

Some companies, including Tui and Jet2, have now cancelled outbound flights to Rhodes as of this morning, however, some airlines are still flying.

Holidaymakers told how they had had to walk miles with young children and cover their mouths and noses with wet t-shirts as they left wildfire areas.

Flames rise during a forest fire on the island of Rhodes, Greece.

Other tourists said they had been told by holiday reps that one person of each group needed to stay awake all night to listen for evacuation sirens when still in their hotels.

Some said they had been greeted at evacuation centres set up in schools by headteachers, who had been drafted in from summer holidays to host tourists.

Tourist Helen Tonks said her flight had taken off from the UK, even though the holiday company she had booked with must have known her hotel, the Gennadi Grand Resort, was closed due to the fires.

"Why fly us from the UK into Rhodes and living nightmare at 23:00 last night, knowing we weren’t safe and our hotel was closed?” she asked. “Five of us among 100s more slept on a school floor. Locals doing everything, but no sight or sound from you.”

Tom Rodgers, a dentist from Ireland, said his family had been evacuated from their hotel to sleep on the floor of a school hall.

He said: “We evacuated to Archangelos last night and stayed overnight in a school. Army/police/Red cross and local volunteers were phenomenal. Provided food, water, mattresses. The kindness and generosity of the Greek people in an emergency has been overwhelming.”

Lesley Young - who arrived in Lindos from Edinburgh on Saturday morning - told the BBC her group could not go to their hotel because it had been evacuated.

Despite having holiday insurance worth £2,000 to use for alternative accommodation, Ms Young said: "We have not been able to find anything at all.

“So we have been taken to the sister hotel of the one we booked and they have set up mattresses on the floor of one of their conference rooms.

“They have really tried to do the best but we have no idea how long we will be in this situation."

Ms Young, who is on holiday as a group of seven including three children and four adults, said they had a two-week holiday booked but was unsure if they would stay that long.

“Luckily we have our luggage and the children are jumping up and down on the mattresses,” she added.

Nicola McCullen, 46, from Kilmarnock, slept on a mattress in the street after arriving late on Saturday night on a Tui flight from Glasgow to Rhodes and told the BBC she feels like she has been “dumped” by travel company Tui.

The UK Embassy in Greece said a help desk would be set up at Rhodes International Airport from 5pm on Sunday to facilitate “the timely departure of visitors who have lost their travel documents”.

Consumer charity Which? has said it it would be "unconscionable" for airlines not to refund tourists.

Which? Travel editor Rory Boland said airlines should be "flexible" should customers decide not to travel due to the six-day blaze.

Mr Boland said: "It's likely that those who are due to go to Rhodes now won't want to go, and given the emergency operations that are taking place on the island, local authorities could probably do without more tourists arriving.

"While there is no official Foreign Office advice against travel to Rhodes, it would be unconscionable for holiday companies to cash in on travellers' sensible decision not to travel by not refunding or rebooking them."