HOLIDAYMAKER Tracy Simmonds was caught up in the horror of the Turkish bomb blasts which seriously injured 21 people this week. Tracy who was staying with her daughter Alana, 15, in the beach resort of Marmaris had been shopping in the street where the bus bomb went off, just hours before the drama unfolded.
And Tracy, 41, who flew back to the UK the day after the blast ripped through the bus, said they had used the bus service several times during their stay.
She said: "We had just been down into the shopping area that day and had been near to the site of the blast.
"When the explosion happened my daughter was out for a walk with a friend but they had only been gone a few minutes when they were told to return immediately to the hotel but they didn't realise why.
"We had used buses like the one that went off twice during our break.
"There were a lot of them out there, but there are no bus stops. You just put your hand out when you wanted to hail one.
"We were only about half-a-mile away from the blast and my family and my husband Alan were frantic, sending e-mails to the hotel to make sure we were okay."
Tracy, who was staying in the Yaven Hotel in the resort, said: "When we got back to Manchester Airport it was chaos because there were television people all over the place trying to get an interview.
"Nobody talked about it on the coach when we were leaving or on the plane coming home.
"At the airport in Turkey security staff were checking underneath buses but I didn't realise why."
Tracy, of Whalley Road, Accrington, works in newspaper advertising and her husband Alan is a postman.
