Majorca has many British visitors

Tests have shown four tourists in Spain and eight back in the UK have the cryptosporidiosis bug, caused by a waterborne parasite.

Symptoms include severe diarrhoea, sickness, stomach cramps and fever.

Law firm Alexander Harris said about 150 tourists at the Hotel Alcudia Pins in Majorca have become unwell.

The source of the illness was likely to be the hotel pool, tests on Saturday suggested. It was drained and disinfected on Wednesday.

Bedside vigil

The Corrigan family from Maypole in Birmingham flew home after their four children fell ill with the bug during their first family holiday abroad.

The children - Dylan, two, Mikey, seven, Jamie, nine and Ryan, 11 - fell ill six days into the family's 14-night break.

Parents Gerard and Catherine faced a four-and-a-half-day bedside vigil in a Spanish hospital as their children recovered from the worst symptoms of the bug.

Lawyer Lesley Casey, on holiday in Majorca when she took up the case of a group of the affected tourists, said: "We will be informing Airtours and Direct Holidays by fax that we will be taking action against them and suing for damages.

"Around 150 people have been taken ill with symptoms of diarrhoea and vomiting.

"About 10 children have been to hospital. We are still awaiting the results of more tests, which will not come back now until next week.

"Around 100 guests have signed forms saying they want us to take legal action for them and their families.

"With proper filtration systems in the pool, this situation shouldn't arise."

"Fobbed off"

Airtours said it would fly anyone from the hotel home early but Ms Casey said she understood this only applied to those who had been formally medically diagnosed.

"Guests are being offered �40 compensation for not being able to use the pool, which is derisory."

She added: "The hotel was notified two- and-a-half weeks ago that there were symptoms.

"What most people are saying is that they were fobbed off."

She said the bug could prove fatal to very young children and elderly with weak immune systems.

Pool drained

A spokeswoman for Airtours and sister company Direct Holidays, which has 2,178 customers at the hotel, said the pool had a modern filter system.

She said: "As soon as the first case was confirmed in the UK on Wednesday we acted by draining the pool.

"We are not transferring existing guests to other hotels because there could be a health risk.

"We have said that anyone who wants to come home can come home and we have only had five bookings."