A couple from Leyland are counting their blessings after narrowly escaping terrorist bombings while on holiday in Egypt.

Scott Walker, 29, and girlfriend Rachel Long, 27, of Willow Road, were on a night out when three bombs went off in the Red Sea resort, Sharm al-Sheikh, at around 1am local time on Saturday, July 23.

The couple said that if they had not changed their plans at the last minute, they would have been caught up in two of the three bombs.

"We had just been speaking to a waiter who was saying we should go to a bar called Shenanigans, but because it closed at one in the morning we decided not to," said Scott, an electricity generator salesman.

Ten minutes later a bomb went off in a car park near Shenanigans, and a minute after that a suicide bomber drove a car into the lobby of Ghazala Gardens Hotel, where the couple were staying.

"If we had not stopped for that last drink, we would have just got into the lobby area and would have been in the lobby.

"We were extremely lucky," added Scott, a former pupil of Balshaws CE High School, Leyland.

He and Rachel, a purchaser, fled to a nearby hotel where friends were staying.

"I have never felt so scared in my life," said Scott.

He said the force of the first bomb shook his hands, and at first people thought it might have been a gas leak.

"But when the second one went off, people started screaming and that's when the panic set in. People actually ran in to the lobby to help the driver because they thought he had had an accident, obviously that was not the case.

"When we went back to our hotel it had been blown to bits. Absolutely obliterated. It was total chaos."

He said the blast had blown out the windows and torn the curtains in their hotel room, 200 metres from the lobby.

"When you think back to the series of events and the things that should have happened, and how lucky we were, to be speaking about it is quite remarkable."

At least 80 people are believed to have been killed in the atrocities and hundreds were injured. Up to 11 Britons are among those unaccounted for.

The couple, who started their week-long break on Sunday, July 17, arrived home on Sunday.

"I have been to the Middle East before, on holiday and for work," said Scott.

"In 2002 I was in Afghanistan when the Taliban was just being kicked out, but that was nothing in comparison."

He said that he and Rachel, a former pupil of St Mary's RC High School, Leyland, will now be avoiding holidaying in continental Europe, Turkey or the Middle East.