Badminton team feel 'imprisoned'

The Scots badminton team are "virtually prisoners" in their hotel after England withdrew from the world championships in India, said their coach.

Dan Travers said heightened security meant it was now impossible to venture out without armed guards.

The England squad pulled out of the tournament, saying they were concerned about safety after a terror threat.

Scots player Susan Hughes said she still felt safe and "nothing had changed".

Speaking from his hotel room in Hyderabad, Dan Travers said security had been tightened since the withdrawal of the eight-strong England team.

He said: "Up until the England team left you could, if you wanted, go out in a taxi without drawing attention to yourself.

"Now if you want to go out in a taxi it's with an armed guard. Everything just tightened and I think it's taken a wee bit of the gloss off a visit to a country like this because now you are virtually a prisoner in your hotel."

As the England team returned home, one of the players, Olympic silver medallist Nathan Robertson, explained the team's concerns.

"We were on a bus on some of the back roads," he said.

"We didn't have any armed guards or anything. We were just in a bus with a bus driver. There's no safety in that at all

"I'm just glad to be home in one piece."

However, Scots team member Susan Hughes, nee Egelstaff, who remains in Hyderabad, said she had no similar concerns.

"I think that they are doing everything they can do to make it safe," she told BBC Scotland.

"They have got as much security as I think they could have.

"I feel it is safe to carry on. Nothing has changed since we made our decision to come to the tournament so I still feel fine about it."

The terror threats have reportedly been made by Muslim extremists Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based organisation fighting against Indian control in Kashmir.

It has been blamed for several terrorist incidents in India including the October 2005 bomb attacks in Delhi, which saw 60 people killed.

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