BRITISH tourists at a Caribbean hotel have been hit by a stomach bug outbreak, with several taken to hospital.

Guests at the Gran Bahia Principe Hotel at Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic, have been so ill with vomiting and diarrhoea they needed medical treatment.

One guest taken ill, Dave Grimshaw, 48, from Swindon, Wiltshire, said: "It's been hell on earth.

"Every day we see a child running to the toilet to be sick - often not making it.

"Hotel bosses seem unwilling to co-operate."

Most of the major UK holiday firms use the hotel, including Thomas Cook, which said it would be sending future clients to other hotels instead.

A Thomas Cook spokeswoman said: "A number of cases of illness have been reported from guests at the Bahia Principe San Juan.

"We're working with other UK tour operators and the Federation of Tour Operators to find out the cause of the problems.

"An independent hygiene consultant has been sent by the FTO to the hotel to carry out an investigation."

Law firm Irwin Mitchell is representing holidaymakers who stayed at the Bahia Principe in June and have suffered severe gastric illness.

It said the outbreak should have been avoided as problems with the hotel "go back at least 10 years".

Suki Chhokar, a travel law expert at Irwin Mitchell, said: "This appears to be yet another major outbreak of illness at this hotel.

"It's a matter of concern in that lessons do not seem to have been learned.

"Our clients who travelled earlier this year reported people from the hotel were so ill on their return flight they were lying in the aisles vomiting into sickbags."