British tourists returned today from Mexico - the centre of the deadly swine flu outbreak- and painted a frightening picture of life at "ground zero".

But travellers said they faced no questions about symptoms of the illness or screening either in Mexico or when they arrived back in the UK.

Marie Thompson, from Gateshead, was among 257 passengers aboard a Thomson Holidays flight from Cancun arriving at Manchester Airport this morning.

Ms Thompson said: ‘‘It was a bit scary, really.

‘‘The airport in Cancun was full of people wearing masks. If you think back to the Sars episode in China, it was like that.

‘‘All the locals have got masks on.

‘‘The locals were wearing masks in the resort, so we had to ask what was happening.’’ The 37-year-old said they found out about the outbreak through local newspapers in the resort and on Mexican TV.

‘‘We had no advice from the travel agents or Thomsons.

‘‘It was only my grasp of Spanish and by looking at the local media that we found out.’’ Elizabeth Lacey, 24, a support worker from Manchester, said: ‘‘A lot of people were frightened.

‘‘Some people we met were leaving the country because they said they were going to close the borders.

‘‘There were no checks flying out. We were a bit concerned about that. There were no checks, we came through and no one asked anything.

‘‘People were trying to keep people calm. We learned about it from friends from the UK, we didn’t hear anything while there.

‘‘There were a few scary calls from home.

‘‘I would say that this area of the country (Cancun) is 800 miles from the area affected."

Laura MacIver, 29, a chemist from Ellesmere Port, said: ‘‘I didn’t know anything about it until we got to Cancun airport and saw people wearing masks. We were not told anything.

‘‘We don’t know how bad it is.’’ William Flannagan, 37, a lorry driver from Lincoln, said: ‘‘A lot of Mexicans were walking around wearing blue face masks, but we were not given any, walking into the airport. We didn’t know anything about it until the guy at the pool next to us was from London and he was reading a newspaper.’’ Mark Bodley, 55, a business consultant from Sheffield, added: ‘‘About two or three days ago we tuned into the BBC World Service and saw the headlines.

‘‘We half expected to be screened coming in but there was nothing.’’ A spokeswoman for Manchester Airport said travellers from Mexico were being screened only at Heathrow because flights landed there from Mexico City, the centre of the outbreak, where more than 80 people have died.