TWO Blackburn women today told how they were saved from the Luxor temple massacre - by a lack of car parking space.

Cheryl Ciraolo and Margaret Read, who were airlifted home from Egypt last night, should have been on a tour of the Hafshepsut Temple with their Thomsons rep when the attack took place.

Instead they were taken to the nearby Valley of the Kings minutes before the militant Islamic fundamentalists went on a stabbing and shooting spree killing 68 tourists because the car park was full.

Cheryl, of Branch Road, Ewood, said: "It was a chilling feeling to know that it could have been us in the temple. It is a case of 'There for the Grace of God go I.' It just wasn't to be us. We were the lucky ones.

"If the car park hadn't been full who knows what could have happened. When I think it could have been me I feel I have had a very close shave.

"It is a terrible shame about the people who died. My heart goes out to all their families."

She spoke of her fear as she slept on the night of the massacre in a boat moored directly opposite the temple.

Cheryl, who has a son Rosano, 10, added: "The security was amazing after the massacre but it was a bit unnerving sleeping across from the temple."

The 41-year-old and her 52-year-old friend Margaret, of The Evergreens in Blackburn, who were supposed to spend a week staying in Luxor after the Nile Cruise, were flown back to Manchester at 11pm last night.

Cheryl said: "I would have stayed for the sake of the Egyptian people who were devastated but I came home for my family because I knew they would be worried." Cheryl, who said she would holiday again in Egypt, added: "Everyone was very subdued on the way back thinking about what had happened".

The pair, who booked their holiday through Lunn Poly in Blackburn, had stopped off during a Nile Cruise when disaster struck.

Cheryl said: "There was a bit of a commotion going on at the time. We didn't know what was going on. We saw guards running up the side of the hill. We didn't actually hear any shots. We were kept inside the valley for about a hour-and-a-half and then told to go back to our boats, when we were told what had happened."

She revealed how two terrorists who hijacked a tour bus were trapped and killed after people in a nearby village formed a human chain.

She said: "The Egyptians would actually put their lives before any of the tourists. They are just as much against terrorism as we are.

"The Egyptians were devastated. They have never had anything like this in Luxor before. Grown men were crying in the street and telling us our sorry they were."

Cheryl said that Luxor was like a "ghost town" after the massacre. "There was just no-one there at all. The place had virtually closed down."

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