December 1, 2004

THOUSANDS of tourists flock to the Canary Islands each year seeking the winter sun.

However, this week they have been massively outnumbered - by locusts.

Experts estimate that 100 million locusts have swarmed over the islands, the worst invasion in half a century.

On Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, cowering holidaymakers shielded their bodies as the pink insects, nicknamed "sky prawns", buzzed around them, filling the air on beaches and blotting out the view from hotel windows.

Locust plague 'ate my holiday' continued