A COUPLE described their terror at seeing scenes of chaos engulfing the streets of Egypt.

Bob and Carol Gooderick, from Southmoor Road, Oxford, had been on an ‘idyllic’ cruise with friends on the Nile, organised to celebrate a friend’s birthday.

But their holiday, spent taking in the sights and learning about the vast history of the country, came to an abrupt halt when they were due to fly back to London from Cairo airport on Saturday.

Mr and Mrs Gooderick said they had no idea about the extent of the situation because there was no email, television or radio on board the boat, a traditional dahabiya, and only a few text messages made it through from friends and family.

But when they arrived at Cairo airport on Saturday afternoon they were confronted with what they described as scenes of absolute chaos.

Mrs Gooderick, 62, said all flights were cancelled, there was no information and people were too scared to leave the safety of the airport.

She added: “Nobody was telling us anything.

“We telephoned the emergency number of our tour operator and they simply said ‘get the first flight out of there anywhere – get out of Cairo, get out of Egypt’.”

After waiting for four hours at the only available flight desk, as other passengers pushed and bribed their way to the front, the couple paid almost £1,000 to secure the next flight out of Egypt, due to fly to Heathrow two nights later.

The 12-strong group managed to buy pieces of cardboard for 10 Egyptian pounds, the equivalent of about £1, to bed down for the night, and the following day were finally taken to a hotel out in a suburb.

On the way there, Mr Gooderick said they were stopped by about 20 vigilante groups who had set up road barricades.

The groups were armed with guns, knives and makeshift weapons made of pieces of wood with blades attached.

Mr Gooderick, 61, said: “It was very worrying, we had no idea who they were, or if they were friendly. They checked our minibus at every stop to make sure there were no weapons and that we weren’t a threat.

“I understand they were protecting their neighbourhoods, but at this point, we still had no idea what was going on.

“We were all staring straight ahead. Nobody spoke for the whole journey.

“The first communication we had, and when we realised the enormity of the problem, was when we put on the TV at the hotel.

”We learned the Turkish, the Israelis and the US were evacuating their nationals. There was no mention of the British people.”

After waking up to the sound of machine gun fire, the group made their way back to the airport at 6am, and back through the vigilante road blocks, to even greater scenes of chaos.

Mr Gooderick said: “The situation was completely out of control. It was the law of the jungle, each person for themselves. No loudspeaker, just mass confusion and rumours.”

The couple finally arrived back home on Monday evening.

Mr Gooderick added: “It was the fear of the unknown which was the scariest part.

”When we finally got on the flight I felt two things – relieved and annoyed.

“There were about 50 spare seats, so there was obviously no governmental and international coordination.”