Brit mum caught in Dubai as strikes ‘shake villa’ reassures children it is ‘safer than London’

A mum from Teesside is desperately hoping she can board a flight home after witnessing missiles exploding in the sky during her Dubai holiday as military action grounded flights and brought travel chaos across the region

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A mother stranded in the Middle East with her two children has described her horror at watching missiles detonating overhead whilst she relaxed outside her villa.

Vicky Lynch had been savouring a break in Dubai with her son and daughter when the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran yesterday morning (February 28). Despite the blasts of intercepted missiles shaking her villa, Vicky has been reassuring her kids that she “feels safer here than I do walking the streets of London at night”.

Blasts subsequently shook cities throughout the Gulf as Iran hit back in retaliation. Vicky, who regularly holidays in Dubai in the UAE, is now frantically hoping she’ll manage to catch a flight home next week after the military strikes grounded aircraft, shut airports and sparked travel mayhem across the region.

And today (March 1) as she remains confined to her villa, Vicky has recounted to the Chronicle Live the moment she realised her family’s enjoyable getaway had transformed into a frantic bid to remain safe from conflict.

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She said: “It was so surreal, the villa was shaking. You don’t expect to go on holiday and have a war break out. You see it on the news but you don’t expect to live it.”

Vicky, from Stockton in Teesside, was sunbathing on Saturday (February 28) when the bombardment commenced. Meanwhile her son Presley, 21, and 15-year-old daughter Josie were visiting a nearby waterpark.

“When it kicked off I was in the back garden sunbathing and relaxing,” she explained. “At first I couldn’t make out what was going on. I heard the noise and seen things in the sky. I didn’t think it would be missiles at first. I thought something had gone wrong with a plane in the sky.

“Then within minutes there were more. That’s when I realised what it was. I ran inside and put the news on. It seemed to come in waves. It all happened, then it went quiet, then an hour later there was more. My priority at the time was the kids.”

Fortunately Presley and Josie had been away from the water having lunch so had their phones with them and they came straight back to the villa by taxi.

The strike on Iran shut down airports across the Middle East and left thousands of passengers stranded.

Vicky, Josie and her daughter’s friend were meant to be flying home today, whilst Presley and his girlfriend Molly had a flight booked for Wednesday. Not wanting to abandon her son, Vicky decided to book flights for the entire party to return on Wednesday.

Meanwhile Vicky has been searching for ways to keep her family as secure as possible in the villa as the missile attacks continue.

“It seems to come in waves,” Vicky said. “You get a cluster of them every hour or so. The scariest part was when we were about to go to bed last night. We eventually go to bed about 1am then the emergency alarms started going off on all our phones.

“We have been trying to work out where we are going to take shelter in the villa. I unlocked the front door to make sure that was accessible.”

Business-owner Vicky told her children that if anything happened overnight they should all go to the villa’s laundry room to stay as far away from windows as possible. “We managed to sleep for about five hours through the night,” said Vicky.

“By 10am they were above us. It felt closer this morning.”

Vicky remains hopeful that her family will be able to return to the UK on Wednesday, but this morning it was reported that Dubai International Airport had been evacuated as Iran continued its retaliatory strikes. Two people are said to have been injured by debris from drones intercepted by air defences.

“We just don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said.

It has also been reported that a blaze has broken out at the Fairmont The Palm hotel in Dubai’s prestige Palm Jumeirah area with four people injured.

Despite enduring a terrifying 24 hours, Vicky says she has been comforted by reports that attacks appear to have been intercepted by air defences and is relieved to be able to take refuge in the comfort of the villa as opposed to being stuck in the airport.

“The good thing is they have got defences in place,” she said.

“They have got things under control. I have been trying to reassure the kids by saying I feel safer here than I do walking the streets of London at night.”

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