'Spiked Drinks' on Orgy Cruise

Britons on holiday may have been duped into taking part in mass orgies on a cruise ship by being served cocktails spiked with pure alcohol, authorities on Cyprus suggest.

Witness accounts of the ferry operating out of the Ayia Napa resort have also revealed the widespread use of ecstasy.

The night voyages were sold as a "pleasant mini-cruise". British touts in the "anything goes" resort are thought to have taken the lead in rounding up clients at £30 a head.

Yesterday police said the drugs and "bombes" - a lethal mix of cheap spirits and pure
alcohol - may have been given to women passengers oblivious to the organisers' motives.

"It appears there was widespread use of ecstasy on board," said a police source.

"Bad alcohol - so-called bombes - was also served, which would have rendered people senseless. It would also explain why it took so long for the boat to be reported."

Cypriots were scandalised this week when the private Mega TV channel exposed the sex cruises. Shots of nude passengers having sex or watching others having sex were broadcast on the news.

"It is clear from the pictures that mass sexual orgies were happening on board," Kostas Kostaras, an officer of the Cypriot merchant marine department, told the Guardian. He said arrests could be made in the coming days.

The Cypriot vessel was captained by a local who has been questioned. The cruises were managed by British operators, and began when the season started in April.

"One witness, a foreigner who took the pictures, said he saw around 300 ecstasy pills taken in a couple of hours," said Dimitris Ioannou, a crime reporter with Mega TV.

The Cyprus government depends on tourism, not least from Britain.