Tourists warned over Spain terror attacks

About 1.5m holidaymakers will go abroad this weekend

British holidaymakers travelling to Spain this summer have been warned to be vigilant of possible bomb attacks.

The Basque separatist group ETA has threatened to target tourist areas and there have been three incidents involving explosives since Thursday.

About one-and-a-half million people are poised to leave the UK over the next three days as the last schools in England and Wales break up and factories close for the summer.

However, the Foreign Office has advised that the threat to UK holidaymakers "remains low".

The great summer getaway

1.5m to leave the UK this weekend

13m to go on package holidays this summer

11m to go on independent holidays

30% more holidays taken abroad than in 1996

50% more holidays taken abroad than in 1991

The most popular destination for UK holidaymakers remains Spain, with about 12 million Britons heading there this year.

Thousands of British tourists were stranded at Malaga airport, in southern Spain on Thursday, after police deactivated a massive car bomb.

A blast from a small home-made bomb on Friday morning slightly injured three people at a bank in Barcelona.

And a suspected Basque militant has died while handling explosives at a resort near Alicante.

Frances Tuke, spokeswoman for The Association of British Travel Agents (Abta), said: "There is a threat of ETA terrorism but it is still deemed to be a very low risk to British tourists.

And the Spanish Interior Ministry has announced plans to reinforce security in tourist resorts this summer while police plead for vigilance from holidaymakers.

UK getaway

This weekend is the busiest for UK holidaymakers with air and ferry ports expecting record numbers of tourists heading abroad.

Heathrow airport expects 650,000 passengers over the three days.

Abta said about 30% more people were heading to foreign climes this year than did in 1996, and 50% more than 10 years ago.

A total of 100,000 holidaymakers are expected to leave Dover this weekend.

Traffic jams

But the port authorities told the BBC that while most ferries were full, there were no delays as of Friday afternoon.

In France traffic jams are expected in the next few days as school holidays are set to begin for French families.

For the millions of UK tourists holidaying at home the hot weather is expected to continue for about a fortnight.

Temperatures of about 30C are forecast in many southern hotspots.

Soaring temperatures

But for those staying in Britain, the soaring temperatures this weekend are likely to mean further congestion on the roads as motorists head off for the coast and countryside.

Traffic is already heavy on many roads across the UK.

The M4 out of London and the M5 from the Midlands into the southwest are among the roads with the heaviest traffic so far this weekend, according to the BBC's Travel unit.

Tourist boards expect coastal areas to do as well, but rural areas to have fewer visitors because of foot-and-mouth.

Some areas are estimated to have 20-25% fewer holidaymakers than last year.