From the things-not-to-say-when-1,500-customers-have-barfed file:

"Holiday Villages are all large properties and the reported level of illness is very low considering the large population."

The Mirror reports this morning that families staying at six of the most popular First Choice Holiday Villages have been hit by a deluge of gastric illnesses over the last three years.

Claims are being processed from people who stayed at the Spanish bases in the Costa del Sol and Majorca and also in Turkey, Egypt, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. At Sarigerme in Turkey more than 700 were taken ill this summer.

Yesterday First Choice told the Mirror that it is axing its Holiday Village resorts in Mexico and the Dominican Republic from next month. The three bugs mainly to blame are salmonella, often caused by food not being cooked or stored properly; campylobacter, from contamination and cryptosporidium, often the result of feces in water.