Outrage at coachload of Chinese tourists seen taking photos of Grenfell Tower
A tour guide has been ordered home to China in disgrace after taking a coachload of visitors to photograph the charred remains of Grenfell Tower.
The coach driver has also been suspended following the incident earlier this week, in which passengers were seen taking snaps before getting back on board.
Around 80 people are known to have died in the Grenfell Tower tragedy, after flames engulfed the tower block on June 14.
John Gregory, a member of Facebook group Grenfell News and Action shared three images of the visitors and their coach close to the tower on Wednesday.
He wrote on the group’s wall: “I can’t believe what I’ve just seen, a coach load of tourists taking photographs of the tower.
“When I approached the coach driver he said that they are health and safety inspectors from China. Surely there is enough photographs on the internet of the tower that they don’t have to come in bus loads to take photos of it?
“I don’t think this is genuine. Can anyone find out as we don’t want the tower become a tourist attraction.”
BM Coaches – which supplied the vehicle – confirmed that the visitors were health and safety experts from China making an unauthorised stop, and both the driver and guide had been suspended as a result.
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James Buckingham, operations director at BM Coaches, said in a statement addressed to the ‘Residents and Friends Of Greenfell (sic) Tower’: ‘I would like to apologize most sincerely on behalf of BM Coaches & Rental Limited for the insensitive actions of the group we were contracted to supply transportation too.
‘I have checked thoroughly through the itinerary provided by the Tour Company and this was an unauthorised visit and as such the company will take the strongest possible action against the driver concerned.
‘Such behaviour is completely against the philosophy with which we run our business, The Tour Company concerned have apologised unreservedly for the actions of there guide and he is returning to China this evening. They also will be making a donation to the official Greenfell (sic) Fund.