Police today swooped on a derelict hotel to remove squatters who have been living in "squalid" conditions.

More than 15 police officers descended on the old Grenada Hotel in Lampton Road, Hounslow, at lunchtime, to oversee the eviction of the squatters, who moved in earlier this year.

Police took action after the body of a man, thought to be connected to the squat, was found in Lampton Park, opposite the hotel, in August, and after a spate of crime in the area linked to the squatters.

It is thought about 20 people had made the derelict building their home.

Acting Deputy Sergeant Alan Boyle, of Hounslow police, said: “I went in yesterday to do a recce and found three rooms where there were beds.

“We’ve been asked to take some sort of positive action.

“We’ve been interacting with these people and keeping an eye on them - we have a duty of care to them.

“The state inside this building is not fit for those people to be living safely.

"It’s not nice in there."

Two Latvian men and a woman, who had been staying in the hotel, were discovered and evicted during the raid.

The 40-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, said she had been made homeless after losing all her money in a scam when she came to UK last November.

She claimed she had been duped into paying money to an agency advertised on the internet that had promised to find her work and accommodation. However, nothing materialized when she arrived in the country.

She said: “I lost my money and couldn’t pay for accommodation.

“I will probably go and sleep in the park but I have nowhere to put my belongings.”

When asked what the living conditions were like in the hotel, she said: “It’s not good, it’s not good at all”, and added that there was just one water access point which they would use to wash.

It was believed the squatters had been living among excrement and blood stains.

But when asked if she would try to return to her native country, the former crane driver and construction worker, said: “The situation in Latvia is worse than it is here, so no.”

The run-down hotel was first used to house asylum seekers in 2006 until they left in 2008 when squatters broke into the site.

A planning proposal to turn the site into a mixed development was submitted by site owner Satti Khangura last year was rejected by the council.

He said: “We’re now going back to them to see if we can get is resolved and take this forward.

“We’re hoping to submit something by the end of October.

“It’s an eye sore but there’s nothing we can do until we get planning permission.”

Mr Khangura is hoping to turn the site into a new 150-room hotel, which he believes would create up to 130 jobs for people in the area.

Firefighters battled a blaze at the hotel last November, which was believed to have been started by squatters living there.

Mohamed Chaudhary, a resident of Bulstrode Road, close to the hotel, said: “It’s been a huge problem. "Every evening they’re drinking outside - it’s frightening the amount they drink and when they don’t have the money for it they ask people walking past.

“I’m all for the new hotel. It’s got to the point where it’s become a problem.”

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