Police called in Poole as Condor anger overflows
POLICE were called to Poole Harbour yesterday morning as angry passengers turned on each other in a weekend of Condor travel chaos.
After its £50m. flagship Liberation was unable to sail on Saturday – following delays and cancellations toward the end of last week after damage to the exhaust system was found – a booking error meant 69 cars and their passengers who thought they would finally be heading for the Channel Islands yesterday morning were bumped to today instead.
With no prior warning that this had happened, passions boiled over and police were called.
A 36-year-old male passenger who did not wish to be named, witnessed the confrontation.
'Tensions were getting very high and people started blockading the check-in to stop letting people through, others refused to move their vehicles,' he said.
'It was basically pitting passenger against passenger, there was a lot of shouting, people standing in front of cars, drivers trying to drive through them, other people lying down in front of cars.
'There was a lot of aggressive shouting at the staff members, who are bearing the brunt. About five police officers in three vehicles were trying to mediate, and there were some heated exchanges, although I did not see if anyone was arrested.'
