Family of four found dead in 5-star hotel sauna after ordering drinks

Sergey Burenkov, 60, and wife Natalya Burenkova, 58, from Moscow, were on holiday with their daughter Katya, 31, and her partner Nikita Belousov, 37.

The Russians were part of a group staying for a week at the five-star Gloria Palace resort in the village of Qerret in Albania.

They had ordered drinks and food to the sauna complex but by the time a waiter delivered it, they were all dead.

‘I shouted several times that the drinks and the fruit were ready,’ the hotel employee was quoted as saying by the Albanian media.

‘No-one answered, so I walked inside the sauna and saw them all.

‘One person was lying on a sun bed, two were on the (sauna) benches.

‘The last one was sitting down with his legs in the pool.

‘They have all suffocated.’

The Russian embassy in Tirana was probing the cause of death, said a Russian diplomatic source.

An Albanian police statement said: ‘At around 10.20pm in Qerret, Kavaja the dead bodies of four people with Russian nationality were found in a sauna.

‘All of them had been asphyxiated.’

A source said: ‘They had only arrived at the hotel an hour before the tragedy.’

Investigations were underway to determine whether there was a technical failure of the sauna ventilation system, or inadequate care of the tourists by the hotel staff.

Alcohol consumption by the victims was also being examined, it was reported.

Police did not give more details about the circumstances of the deaths but said the hotel’s entire staff has been questioned.

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