• A fleet of Navy ships will be participating in war games in the Red Sea
• Ships will be in prime position to rescue UK nationals if violence escalates
• Comes as British holidaymakers are told they can't change trips to Red Sea resorts because they are deemed safe by the Foreign Office
  
• More than 800 have been killed this week alone in violent clashes in Egypt 
  

By Suzannah Hills

PUBLISHED: 07:24 EST, 18 August 2013 | UPDATED: 08:33 EST, 18 August 2013

The Navy is on standby to evacuate British tourists from Egypt amid increasing concerns over the country's stability.

A week of bloodshed has seen more than 800 people killed in violent clashes between supporters of the ousted President Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood against the interim military government.

The HMS Illustrious, the assault ship Bulwark and a fleet of frigates and support ships on their way to Gibraltar will participate in a four-month-long series of war games that will see them sail through the Red Sea.

This places them in a prime position to launch a rescue mission to evacuate British nationals should the violence in Egypt escalate further.

A top Naval source told the Sunday Express: 'The planning team will be looking at all options and making sure we are ready to evacuate British nationals if it comes to that or in a worst-case scenario intervene to rescue UK citizens taken hostage.

'We have a desk officer who will know where we can fly into, who we can liaise with, where the majority of UK passports live and have at least a dozen local people who we can call on to help us.

'As well as tourists, we have British nationals inside Cairo and other areas and this is now very much a waiting game. It is all about the political decision- making process, based on the intelligence information collated at GCHQ. Our role is to be ready.'

It is believed there may be up to 40,000 Britons at Red Sea resorts with more due to fly out in coming weeks as tour providers are refusing to refund or exchange pre-booked holidays to destinations in the country deemed safe by the Foreign Office. 

The majority of Egypt is said to be a no-go area, the Government issuing advice warning Britons not to travel to locations such as Cairo, Luxor and Alexandria unless it is essential.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is warning against all travel to the north-eastern corner of the country, but Red Sea resorts are deemed safe to travel to by the FCO, though there have been reports of demonstrations in Hurghada.

Because of this, many holiday providers are refusing to refund or even exchange trips book to Red Sea resorts for other destinations.

Pam Clarke, from Staffordshire, told the Sunday Telegraph: 'I am angry with Thomas Cook as my son and his girlfriend are due to fly to Hurghada on September 10 and for the last three weeks have been trying to change destination.

'They have been fobbed off continually, they have tried to change to another destination and even offered to pay more money than the almost £2,000 they have paid for their holiday but Thomas Cook say "don't panic, we are monitoring the situation".

'They are scared to go to Hurghasa. They have friends living in Sharm who are saying "don't come, it's not safe".'

A spokesman for Thomas Cook said: 'Further to the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Thomas Cook continues to operate its flying and holiday programme to Red Sea destinations, and normal booking conditions apply.  

'The Red Sea tourist area including Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada remain unaffected and are operating as normal.  

'We would like to reassure our customers that our experienced teams on the ground have confirmed that no tourist areas have been further impacted and that holidaymakers are continuing to enjoy their holidays in the popular Red Sea resorts of Sharm el Sheikh and Hurghada, which are a considerable distance from Cairo (400 km/8 hours).

'We can confirm that we have cancelled our excursions from the Red Sea resorts to Cairo, Luxor, Moses Mountain and St Catherine’s Monastery.  

However, some excursions are now taking place within the perimeter of Sharm el Sheikh, including boat and diving excursions, quads and city tours.'

The US, France, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium have all advised their citizens to avoid Egypt while Thailand is preparing to evacuate 2,000 of its nationals.

British holidaymakers have criticised the government for failing to follow their lead. 

Lawrence Aston, 52, from Bromley, Kent, on holiday in Marsa Alam, near Sharm el-Sheikh, with his wife and two sons, told The Sunday Express: 'We would have gone elsewhere if we’d have known what was going to happen.

'The Foreign Office still say it’s OK to come here but I don’t know how much longer that can last.

'The tour operators are toeing a dangerous line as there’s no way of telling if Westerners could become a target or if this could become a civil war.'

The European Union has said that it is to 'urgently review' relations with Egypt. In a rare joint foreign policy statement, the Presidents of the European Commission and the European Council, Jose Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy, said that the army and interim government in Egypt had a duty to end the violence in the country.

They said that 'the violence and the killings of these last days cannot be justified nor condoned' and that calls for democracy 'cannot be disregarded, much less washed away in blood'. EU foreign ministers are set to hold an emergency meeting on Egypt this week.

It comes as the Muslim Brotherhood plans to hold demonstrations outside Downing Street today while their counterparts in Egypt prepares to hold a demonstration in front of a court house in southern Cairo later today.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian government has begun deliberations on whether to ban the Brotherhood, a long-outlawed organization that swept to power in the country's first democratic elections a year ago.

Blaming a defiant Brotherhood for the bloodletting, Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi has proposed banning the 85-year-old movement and effectively forcing it underground.

But Deputy Prime Minister Ziad Bahaa el-Din, a liberal, calls for an immediate end to the state of emergency, political participation from all parties and guarantees of human rights, including the right to free assembly.

The crisis meeting follows the authorities declaring a state of emergency and killing hundreds of people in raids on Wednesday on two protest camps set up in Cairo to demand Morsi's reinstatement.

Government security forces stormed the al-Fath mosque in Cairo while Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been blamed for a series of attacks on Coptic Christian churches.

Four Irish citizens are reported to be trapped inside Al Fateh Mosque which was surrounded by Egyptian security forces in Cairo's Ramses area. Their father is Hussein Halawa, imam of Ireland's largest mosque.

Nasaybi Halawa whose three sisters and teenage brother were among hundreds of people forced to leave the Al Fateh mosque in Cairo by Egyptian security forces, said the family was trying to stay strong but were extremely concerned.

It is understood two of the siblings Omaima, 21, and Fatima, 23, have been detained by the Egyptian authorities at an unknown location, and the whereabouts of their other sister, Somaia, 27, and 17-year-old brother Ibrihim is also unknown. Their worried relatives are unsure if they were arrested at the mosque or fled.

Ms Halawa added: 'We do not know anything about them. We do not know where they have been taken. We do not know if they are in one of the police stations in Cairo or somewhere else. We don't even know where to start looking.'

The capital's frenetic streets, unusually empty in the past few days, were returning to normal today, although the army kept several big squares closed and enforced a curfew overnight.

At night, soldiers standing by armoured personnel carriers man checkpoints and vigilantes inspect cars for weapons. Banks and the stock market reopened for the first time since Wednesday's carnage with shares plunging 2.5 per cent.

The Brotherhood has said it will keep up mass protests until Morsi, toppled by the army on July 3 after huge demonstrations against him, is freed from jail and returned to office.