The teenage daughter of British Olympic athlete Andy Turner has described 'terrifying' nights sheltering in her Dubai apartment as Iranian drones and missiles were intercepted overhead. Carmen Gaynor-Turner, 19, travelled to the UAE last Thursday for a five-night stay to explore a job offer as an estate agent, but her trip turned into a nightmare following a full-scale US attack on Iran and subsequent retaliatory strikes across the Middle East.
Speaking from her AirBnB at Dubai Marina, Carmen said the tower block trembled as missiles were intercepted during the initial wave of strikes on Saturday. 'I could hear bangs all day, but I thought it was building works,' she told the Manchester Evening News. 'Then I read that they were missiles. The windows were shaking. The missile alerts were going off all night. You got about two hours sleep at a time.'
Carmen was due to fly home on Tuesday, but her flight was cancelled along with thousands of others. She has now booked an Emirates flight to Manchester in the early hours of Sunday and is desperately hoping it departs as scheduled. After spending a week in the AirBnB, she moved to a family friend's property in Damac Hills, about 20 minutes inland, where she remains mostly indoors, afraid to stray far in case of another attack.
Her mother, Natalie Gaynor-Turner, 46, said from the family home in Stockport that they are preparing contingency plans, including the possibility of Andy, 45, travelling to the Middle East to bring her home. 'It's just your worst nightmare,' she said. 'I am a wreck. She shouldn't have to go through this.'
