An elderly British tourist has died and 30 others have been taken ill with suspected food poisoning while staying at the luxury Grand Hotel Gardone in Italy, according to The Guardian.

Geoffrey Appleyard from Evesham in Hereford, died early on Monday morning while holidaying with his wife at the hotel that Winston Churchill is said to have favoured. 

Thirty of the 200 other British guests reported symptoms of food poisoning and 16 were said to be stable in hospital.

The Italian news service Ansa last night reported that the first tests suggested salmonella. An autopsy on the dead man is due to take place today.

The hotel manager, Franco Mizzarro, said it was too early to connect Appleyard's death with the food poisoning, saying it may have been a heart attack."

But Jean Appleyard said yesterday that her husband had begun to feel ill soon after eating seafood risotto for dinner at the hotel on Saturday night.

Italian police visited the hotel on Monday, to take food samples from the kitchen for analysis.


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By Gemma Sharkey

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