An island holiday turned to terror for two families when fire broke out in a multi-storey hotel.

Smoke spread to the top floor of the 11-storey Thomson hotel in Gran Canaria as a large cupboard blazed five floors below.

Publican Michael Roper and his friend Gary Noble frantically smashed glass-fronted alarms, expecting them to sound the alert.

But despite hitting them with fire extinguishers, no alarm sounded.

Mr Roper, 43, landlord of the Dog and Gun at Oxenhope, near Keighley, said: "I used my fist at first to try to smash the alarm and then a fire extinguisher - but nothing happened."

He had been woken by Mr Noble, 42, a partner in Cyprus Garage in Thackley, in the early hours of last Sunday.

"I had a T-shirt round my mouth so I could breathe - the smoke was really bad," said Mr Noble, who had been roused by his wife, Sarah, 40.

She had heard shouts and had looked out of the balcony of the Taurito Princess hotel to see smoke coming from the lift and stair area.

"And when I looked into the corridor it was full of smoke. I just grabbed the kids - I couldn't think of anything else," she said.

Both men hammered on the rooms along the corridor to rouse other guests.

Mr Roper said: "When people came out they began shouting and screaming as we helped them to the escape. The smoke was getting thicker and we went up to the 11th floor. I tried breaking the alarm again and nothing worked."

Later in the morning people were so distressed there was a near riot situation because there had been no proper alarm, no official evacuation, no head-count and no room check, he added.

A Thomson spokesman said the alarm was a two-stage system and had worked correctly. The system enabled a member of staff, once alerted to the fire, to investigate and then if necessary set off the alarm throughout the hotel.

On this occasion the alert was flashed on a panel in reception and a member of staff had investigated and tackled the blaze with the help of two guests.

"Our health and safety department is happy the system worked. Medical attention had been offered but nobody accepted it and a letter was sent to all guests explaining the alarm system," he said.