Families who contracted a potentially fatal bug on holiday in the Dominican Republic have said they were "livid" after health officials claimed they brought the illness to the island.

They were shocked to hear that officials on the Caribbean island had suggested British tourists had caught the virus before arriving.

"It's ridiculous to suggest that tourists are responsible for this bug and that just adds insult to injury," said Sue Edwardson, 47, now back home in Long Furlong Road, Sunningwell, near Abingdon.

Earlier this month, the Edwardson family, and the Simmonds family from Bicester, stayed at the 941-room, four-star Bahia Principe complex, in the San Juan resort, where hundreds of holidaymakers were struck down.

The families are still recovering from the suspected dysentery outbreak and are seeking legal advice about how best to obtain compensation.

A total of 205 holidaymakers, most of them from the UK, came down with a norovirus, which causes gastritis, vomiting, diarrhoea and fever.

Mrs Edwardson, who went on holiday with her partner Steve Bulley, 47, and son Alex, 17, added: "I'm furious with the suggestion from the Dominican Republic that British tourists are somehow responsible for bringing the bug to the island themselves.

"We flew out with a family from Wallingford and they stayed at a different hotel - they experienced no problems at all.

"It's clear there was something wrong with the hotel and I personally think the bug came from the pool - at one point they took green slurry from the top of a pool grating.

"If my family had been ill before our holiday we wouldn't have flown out to the Dominican Republic.

"Hearing this will only make us more determined to get our money back."

David Simmonds, 46, wife Susan, 40, and son Thomas, 15, of Trinity Close, contracted the stomach bug the day after arriving on the island and cut their two-week break short by seven days.

Mr Simmonds said: "This is utter nonsense and a clear attempt by the tourist industry in the Dominican Republic to protect their failing reputation as a holiday destination.

"If there was no problem at the hotel itself then why was a similar sickness bug reported there in June?

"We were feeling fine when we arrived on the island and we became ill after eating or drinking something at the hotel, it's as simple as that.

"It was the same for lots of other families.

"This is a damage-limitation exercise by the resort because they are worried that British holidaymakers won't want to go there now."

Hotel Bahia Principe San Juan, located on the island's north coast, has reopened after it was temporarily closed.

The hotel's food, drinking water and swimming pools had "met local safety regulations", officials said.