AN EAST LANCASHIRE couple today told how they felt lucky to be alive after escaping their bombed Egyptian hotel without injury.

Nick and Dinah Wilson were in their rooms getting ready for bed after a night out when the explosion ripped through the reception of the Ghazala Gardens Hotel just 25 yards away.

They gave a harrowing account of how they rounded up other survivors and fled to safety past body parts, flames, rubble and an eerie yellow smog caused by the explosives' residue.

At least four people they knew were killed, leaving them mentally scarred.

Back at home Mr and Mrs Wilson revealed two macabre 'mementos' of the blast -- their charred and singed passports which were in the reception's safety deposit boxes where the suicide car-bomber detonated his explosives.

Mr Wilson, 44, said: "We were in the wrong place at the wrong time but we were so lucky. It's a relief to be home."

Mrs Wilson, 43, a childcare manager at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council, added: "When we look at the pictures on TV we cannot believe we were part of that and got out."

Three bombs went off in Sharm el Sheikh at the Ghazala Gardens, Moevenpick Hotel and Old Market in the early hours of Saturday, killing around 100 people and injuring hundreds. Up to 11 Britons are feared dead.

Mr and Mrs Wilson, of Stonehill Drive, Blackburn, who have a 17-year-old son Aaron, were two days into the second week of their holiday.

They returned to the hotel at 1.20am and had a "laugh and a joke" with the receptionist and tourist policeman assigned to their hotel.

"Twenty minutes later they were dead", said Mr Wilson.

Mr Wilson, who works in Cheshire, added: "There was a bang followed quickly by another. I said 'we've been bombed'. We knew straight away.

We knew we had to get out."

Mrs Wilson added: "I was shaking so much I could not put my clothes on. It was deathly quiet. I said 'where are the sirens?'"

The couple believe a thick rubber curtain intended to block out sunlight guarded them from shrapnel.

They began rounding neighbouring holidaymakers from their rooms and exiting their block and Mrs Wilson said on the way down she saw "a body that was just a torso".

Her husband added: "There was a horrible yellow fog everywhere and we could see flames. There were pools of blood and all sorts.

We were concerned about a second explosion, so we went behind the building and came to a football pitch which had floodlights on.

People were gathering there."

The couple stayed there for the next seven hours while staff from their tour operator MyTravel sorted out coaches and accommodation while special flights home were arranged.

During this time, Mr and Mrs Wilson told of the shock and panic among the holidaymakers as they worked out who was missing.

Mr Wilson said: "There was a girl with blood on her face and her finger hanging off. She was hysterical asking where her mum and sister were."

Mrs Wilson added: "There was shouting and screaming. The floodlights kept going off and everybody screamed. There was also lots of silence. Everyone was crying.

"There was an Italian man I will never forget who was shouting "Guiseppe, Guiseppe, Guiseppe! At that point his two sons were missing, although they later turned up.

"The Egyptians were brilliant. Even though they had lost colleagues they still looked after us by bringing water."

A coach took them to another hotel at 8am.

Mrs Wilson said: "We had showers and got changed but nobody wanted to stay in the rooms. We needed to be around the others. It was like a band of brothers."

They got to the airport for a flight at around 9pm and found, to their surprise, their passports there with others that had been retrieved from the rubble.

On the plane what had happened started to sink in.

Mrs Wilson said: "I started sobbing like my heart was pounding out. Then people nearby started sobbing one by one."

Mr Wilson revealed how the most innocuous bangs back at home were now frightening them. He added: "I've seen people staying near where the bombs went off talking on TV about how they just have to get on with it. But they were not bombed."

The couple would like to thank MyTravel for their "excellent" care in helping them return to England quickly.