World Cup hero Gordon Banks among tourists to escape Egypt riots

World Cup-winning goalkeeper Gordon Banks was among the British tourists forced to sleep overnight at Egyptian airports as thousands tried to escape the country's escalating violence.

The 73-year-old said he and wife Ursula slept in chairs for two nights in an airport at Luxor while waiting for a flight home at the weekend. The couple, from Staffordshire, were unable to secure a hotel room.

The 1966 World Cup winner landed at Heathrow late last night at the end of a holiday, which saw the couple spend four days in Dubai and three in Luxor.

He told the Standard: "It was horrendous. The airport was cramped. You couldn't move and the price of food was really high. We just slept in chairs. We saw bits and pieces of the protests, we followed it all on television." Tourists and ex-pats arriving at Heathrow from Cairo last night told similar tales of being forced to sleep at the city's airport. Flights were cancelled and rising tensions made it difficult for them to return to their hotels.

Jo Steel, 37, a project manager from Bracknell, had been staying in the Intercontinental Citystar Hotel in Heliopolis on business. She said: "On Friday night I heard lots of gunshots and tear gas explosions and when I looked out of my window, I saw buildings on fire. It all felt too close for comfort. At night we were told to close our curtains to create a blackout. In the street below gangs of men were carrying bars and knives. At the airport other tourists and foreigners said they were told to duck down in their tour buses as they passed through Cairo."

Di Gardiner, 65, and Pam Oliver, 74, were among a group of 13 Britons who had just finished a Nile cruise. Mrs Oliver said: "When we got to the airport there was no one around to advise us on what to do. The flights were not listed, there was no food or drink available. It was pandemonium, people were climbing on the check-in desks and demanding their places. The airport was overrun with people."

Mrs Gardiner said: "There were US nationals getting help, but it was as if the Brits were forgotten. It was absolute mayhem. On the roads there were men with poles and knives and the military everywhere. Machineguns were going off all night and fires were burning in buildings nearby."

One couple told how they bought cardboard boxes outside the airport and bedded down for the night before buying two £450 air tickets last night to get home.

Patricia Freeman from Camden, and step-daughter Emma Pethers, 48, from Blackheath, flew home last night, cutting short their 10-day holiday. Mrs Freeman, 74, said: "The Foreign Office should be doing more for people who are stuck out there with no means of getting out."