Warning over gap year safety rules

A coroner is urging the Government to review "gap year" adventure holiday companies' safety procedures, after 17-year-old Luke Molnar died on a conservation trip to Fiji.

There are fears that new regulations, designed to set minimum requirements and protect travellers, are too weak. A government spokeswoman said a minister would respond to concerns in due course.

Stockport coroner John Pollard recorded a verdict of unlawful killing at Luke's inquest. The teenager was electrocuted when he touched a metal washing line.

Mr Pollard criticised the firm which organised the trip, Coral Cay Conservation, saying that its safety arrangements were "weak, ineffectual and of very little use".