As Iranian missiles continue to rain down across the Middle East today, Britons stranded in Dubai have told the Daily Mail of their terror, taking shelter in underground car parks and nightclubs.

Tourists posted videos of drones and debris hitting luxury hotels over the weekend.

Many escorted their guests to safer ground in car parks and service corridors. Videos posted on social media show guests lying on floors, mattresses or just a thin blanket.

And one hotel has today set up beds in the car park, as so many tourists have taken to sleeping there, feeling too exposed to strikes in their rooms. 

Stacey Gibson, 32, and her partner Charles Wright, 34, from Surrey, were woken up  this morning to two loud bangs as more missiles were intercepted in the UAE.

‘We’re in fight or flight mode,’ Ms Gibson says. ‘Every noise that you hear, every little thing, we’re jumping, and asking, what’s that? Do we need to move?’

The couple have slept in a basement car park at the Mileo Hotel for the past few nights, having been shaken up after another hotel nearby was struck. They were in a taxi to the airport, heading home after a week-long trip for Mr Wright’s birthday, when the attacks first broke out.

‘We heard this almighty bang, it shivered through our feet. We looked at the cab driver, and he didn’t know what it was,’ Ms Gibson said. ‘At the airport it was mayhem. There were so many cars and when we went in we saw everything was cancelled or delayed on the departures board.’

The Foreign Office today issued new travel advice to Britons heading to the Middle East as thousands of flights were cancelled in the worst crisis for global air travel ‘since Covid’. More than 1,500 flights heading to the Middle East have been axed globally, hitting the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers – including Brits trying to return to the UK via hub airports in Dubai and Qatar.

More than a third of the flights scheduled to depart from the UK to the region today were cancelled, with British Airways and easyJet calling off several flights to Cyprus following drone attacks on RAF Akrotiri.

The hotel has set up beds in the car park because so many tourists have taken to sleeping there, rather than inside

Stacey Gibson went to Dubai with her partner Charles Wright to celebrate his birthday

The couple told the Daily Mail that they have been sleeping in a car park underneath their hotel as their room above ground was too exposed

Many luxury hotels have escorted guests from their panoramic views and marbled rooms into underground car parks and service corridors for their safety

British tourists are being ushered from their luxury 5 star hotel rooms into underground car parks in Dubai after the city faced a relentless attack by Iran which killed three civilians

Numerous videos posted on social media show a scattering of holidaymakers across the floors of several car parks, lying on mattresses or just a thin blanket

The chaos has sent airline share prices plunging, with BA owner IAG slumping by five per cent in morning trading and European carrier Air France down more than seven per cent.

Meanwhile, plans are underway to evacuate more than 100,000 Britons from expat hotspots including Dubai and Abu Dhabi – where the authorities have ordered hoteliers not to evict stranded travellers.

Paul Charles, a travel and aviation expert who runs the PC Agency, said the disruption to global air travel was the worst since Covid.

A total of 539 flights from the UK to the Middle East are expected to be grounded in the seven days from March 1, equal to 180,008 seats, according to data analytics firm Cirium.

The Foreign Office has advised against travel to all countries currently under attack, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Brits already in these countries have been urged to ‘immediately shelter in place’ as Iran continues retaliatory strikes following Saturday’s air assault that killed its Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.

The UK government is currently advising against all travel to Iran and Israel. It says anyone travelling to Cyprus should ‘take sensible precautions’ and follow the advice of local authorities, and advises against all travel to parts of Egypt.

Ms Gibson has been unable to get hold of her airline, Emirates. The couple are now staying near Fairmont The Palm, a hotel which was hit by shrapnel and caught fire on Saturday after a strike was intercepted.

‘I had come downstairs from our room to order some dinner,’ Ms Gibson explains. ‘As I walked back to the lift, there was a bang from where the Fairmont was hit.

‘The back doors to our hotel flung open. A gush of wind swept me off my feet and the whole building shook.’

After the blast, guests were told they should return to their rooms, but Ms Gibson and other guests were too worried.

‘Since then, everyone has been sleeping in the car park of the hotel,’ she says.

She hasn’t heard from Emirates and the couple had only budgeted for the week of their holiday, so they were concerned about where they would stay. But the manager of the hotel has extended their stay free of charge, and even gave up his own room to shelter another family of tourists with children.

Ms Gibson and Mr Wright have registered with the Foreign Office, but have received no further communication. 

She contacted the FCDO on Sunday to ask whether it would be safer to move inland, off the Palm Jumeirah island which has been targeted. But she was frustrated to find that the call operator was unable to provide any guidance.

Ms Gibson found out yesterday from a friend about the Government’s plans for a potential evacuation across land, to an area where the airspace is open, such as Saudi Arabia. ‘I’m glad to know we’ll be getting out one way or another,’ she says.

‘But the worry is still there. Saudi Arabia is a long drive away and we’re concerned about falling debris.’

They were in a taxi to the airport, heading home, when they first heard an ‘almighty bang’ as the attacks broke out

Denise Waterman, left, is stranded in Dubai with her two friends Amanda Lyod, and Tracey Brimfield, right

The singer from 80s pop group Tight Fit said she was evacuated to a nightclub under her hotel

Denise Waterman, 65, who is stranded in Dubai with two friends, desperately wants to get home safely to her children and newborn grandson.

The singer – best known as one-third of the band Tight Fit, who topped the charts with their cover of The Lion Sleeps Tonight in 1982 – is trying to stay in good spirits while they await a flight out.

Within the confines of her hotel, Ms Waterman, who lives in Wandsworth, south-west London, says there is a strange sense of normality, despite the regular sounds of missiles being intercepted nearby.

‘It’s all very surreal to be sitting at a pool with music blasting,’ she says. ‘Who’d have thought I’d be stuck in Dubai, with Rick Astley playing and bombs going off around me?

‘Every now and then you hear a bang, but it’s almost like it’s normal now. You can’t enjoy your holiday though. It’s not a holiday any more, it’s a waiting game.’

Speaking on a potential evacuation over land to an area where the airspace is open, Ms Waterman says: ‘We’re happy with any safe route, so long as it means we can get the hell out.’

On Saturday evening, guests were told to go to shelter from the strikes in a nightclub called Bling underneath the hotel.

‘They got rid of all the alcohol, and the room was filled with everyone – kids, older people,’ she says.

‘It was a crazy scenario. They brought down chips and water, and a few games, Jenga and god knows what else, which nobody picked up of course.’

Ms Waterman and her friends, Amanda Lyod and Tracey Brimfield, from South Wales, were due to fly back on Sunday. ‘We couldn’t get hold of the airline by hook or by crook until I took to social media to complain,’ she says.

Emirates has changed their tickets to a flight that is due to depart on Tuesday, but they remain unhopeful that it will go ahead and feared they may have to get in touch with the airline again to rebook.