Warning to British tourists after Albufeira killing

Ian Haggath, 50, from Dunston, near Gateshead, was left unconscious in a pool of blood after being set upon in the notorious Montechoro area of Albufeira in the early hours of the morning. He died of his injuries in hospital last week.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has now revised its travel guidance to Britons heading for the Algarve and warned them to “remain alert at all times”.

Judicial police are looking into the possibility that Mr Haggath’s attackers were the same group that may have killed British solider, Darren Lackie, 22, in March, and knifed Irish tourist, David Hoban, 44, who survived, a few days later.

All three men were waylaid in the Montechoro strip part of Albufeira, where a lot of crime takes place. It is full of bright lights, bars and clubs, but according to borough mayor Desidério Silva, there are simply never adequate numbers of police on patrol.

Elidérico Viegas, president of the region’s largest hotel association, blamed Albufeira’s recent rise in violence on the government’s failure to properly address the needs of a region whose economy is based on tourism.