Illegal ambulances are preying on foreign tourists in Bulgaria’s winter resort of Bansko, sometimes demanding up to 400 euro to transport them for medical treatment – and the places offering medical treatment may be illegal too.

This emerged from a report by Bulgarian National Television, quoting hoteliers in the resort.

The distance from Bansko to Razlog, where the pirate ambulances take patients, is about five km. At 400 euro, that works out to about 80 euro a kilometre.

Doctors said that there were at least five illegal medical offices operating in the resort.

Nurse Maria Klecherova told Bulgarian National Television that, at some hotels, tourists called the front desk for assistance and the hotels summoned illegal ambulances, "taking tourists who knows where".

The report quoted British citizen James Hughes, who has a hotel in the resort, as saying that he had heard from compatriots about huge sums being asked for emergency transport by private ambulance. This included 400 euro from Bansko to Razlog.

Traumatologists warned that there was no control over what kind of health care was being given in the ambulances and at "phantom" medical offices.

Dr Nikolai Tsotsomanski, a trauma treatment specialist at Sv Blagoveshtenie medical centre in Bansko said that, for example, giving painkillers to someone with abdominal injuries could cause serious problems.

Police at the resort said that they were ready to react as soon as a formal complaint was made.

Chief inspector Valeri Vulchev of the regional office of the Interior Ministry in Bansko said that if documented cases could be followed up, the practice could be terminated.

Bulgarian National Television quoted doctors as advising tourists in need of emergency medical assistance to use only officially registered medical offices in the region.