SICK passengers aboard a luxury Southampton based cruise liner are ready to sue for £2.5m, lawyers are warning.

Passengers taken ill could claim as much as £6,000 each for ruined holidays, according to solicitors who have handled similar claims.

Around 430 passengers on board the P&O Cruises liner Aurora have been hit by a highly contagious stomach virus.

Aurora left Southampton for a 17-day Adriatic voyage on October 20 and has stopped at Majorca, Sicily, Venice and Dubrovnik. She returns to Southampton next Wednesday.

The outbreak has caused passengers to be violently ill.

Customers have had their once-in-a-lifetime holidays ruined by vomiting and diarrhoea.

The total claim against P&O could amount to as much as £2.5m, according to Clive Garner, partner with Irwin Mitchell Solicitors International Travel Litigation Group.

Mr Garner said: "We have already received enquiries from several people who wish to take legal action against P&O Cruises in the light of the current outbreak of illness on board the MS Aurora and we expect many more."

Mr Garner said his firm were already suing on behalf of clients hit by a similar virus earlier this year. A similar outbreak aboard the MS Sundream in 1998 cost Airtours £350,000 after 58 passengers sued. Mr Garner said he expected the cost of claims from the 430 passengers on board the Aurora to exceed £2.5m.

"People will want to take action after suffering ruined holidays," Mr Garner added.

A P&O Cruises spokesman said: "We do not have a set policy for compensation claims as every case is dealt with on an individual basis and treated accordingly."