A Chinese tour guide has been sent home after a busload of tourists was taken to Grenfell Tower to take pictures.
The unauthorised visit saw the tourists dropped off just yards from the blackened shell where up to 80 people died in a blaze in June.
Tourists were seen taking out their cameras and taking pictures of the disaster site on Wednesday.
A Chinese tour guide has been sent home after a busload of tourists was taken to Grenfell Tower to take pictures
The unauthorised visit saw the tourists dropped off just yards from the blackened shell where up to 80 people died in a blaze in June
When confronted, the coach driver, who has been suspended, claimed the visitors were Chinese health and safety experts
When confronted, the coach driver, who has been suspended, claimed the visitors were Chinese health and safety experts, according to The Times.
Witness John Gregory told the newspaper: ‘When I approached the coach driver, he said that they are health and safety experts from China. Surely there are enough photographs on the internet of the tower that they don’t have to come in busloads to take photos of it.’
Coach provider BM Coaches confirmed the driver had been suspended and the tour guide sent back to China.
James Buckingham, operations director at BM Coaches, said: ‘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.’
It is the latest example of so-called grief tourism, with scores of people travelling to the tower in order to snap selfies
Coach provider BM Coaches confirmed the driver had been suspended and the tour guide sent back to China
BM Coaches has also made a donation to the Grenfell Fund as an apology
BM Coaches has also made a donation to the Grenfell Fund as an apology.
This is the latest example of so-called grief tourism, with scores of people travelling to the tower in order to snap selfies.
The trend has been slammed by locals who accused visitors to Grenfell of turning it into a tourist site.
Speaking in the days after the fire, Lorraine Warrington, who has lived on the nearby Silchester estate her entire life, said: ‘This is not the time or place to take selfies – in front of a tower block where my friends passed away.’
And at last month’s Notting Hill Carnival, police were forced to erect a ‘ring of care’ around Grenfell to stop people taking pictures of the tower.