Man relieved to be home after Dubai hotel set on fire by drone

A businessman whose hotel was set on fire by a drone has described a "nerve-wracking" experience after returning from the United Arab Emirates.

Stuart Carson was staying at Fairmont The Palm Hotel in Dubai on Saturday when it was struck.

He arrived home on Tuesday night, after a number of earlier flights he had booked were cancelled by airlines.

The United States-Israeli attacks on Iran have led to the closure of nearly all airspace in the Middle East, with thousands of flights cancelled.

Carson said the situation in Dubai first became clear after he heard loud bangs on Saturday morning, which he thought might have been coming from construction work nearby.

Later he started seeing Iranian missiles and drones being intercepted in the sky.

He was inside the hotel when the drone hit the building, causing his "whole room to completely shake".

"It was very nerve-wracking" he told BBC News NI's Evening Extra programme.

"The drone struck close to one of my friend's rooms.

"He was there with his son. He called me and said, we've been attacked in some way, shape, or form."

The father-of-two said following the attack, there were chaotic scenes in the lobby of the hotel.

"The front doors were damaged, and one of the bell boys was being pulled away. At that point, we just didn't know what to do."

Carson, from Holywood in County Down, took immediate shelter at a nearby beach before spending the rest of the evening in the basement of the hotel.

"Once dawn broke, we started to feel a bit more comfortable with the situation and just gathered our thoughts and had breakfast in the hotel," he said.

"We decided just to get out of there. So we headed north and booked into a hotel where it was a lot quieter.

With many flight from the Middle East cancelled, Carson found it difficult to get back to Northern Ireland.

His original flight with British Airways was cancelled so he booked a number of flights, including one to Belfast via Birmingham.

It was this flight which got him back to Belfast City Airport on Tuesday evening.

"We were looking at all options but we wanted to just focus on trying to get as close to home as possible," he said.

"When we were watching the map on the flight, we knew we were kind of out of the danger zone.

"So after the first hour, we started to feel relief."

Carson said it was a "surreal experience" and was looking forward to seeing his family and dog and having a glass of wine.

Meanwhile an Emirates flight from Dubai to Dublin is due to land on Tuesday night, carrying passengers whose flights were cancelled at the weekend.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said there would be more than 400 people on the flight.

McEntee said the focus for airlines was their customers and people stuck in transit.

The flight is due to land at about 22:00 local time in Dublin.

A second flight directly to Dublin from Dubai is scheduled for Thursday, with a further 400 passengers on it.