The family of an Edinburgh grandmother who has been missing in Mexico for nearly a week have hit out at the authorities there for doing little to help find her.

Seventy-seven-year-old Julia Howard vanished on June 16 from her five-star hotel in Cancun just hours after arriving in the resort for a family holiday. Her family are becoming increasingly desperate and say they are being given little help to find her.

Henry Harvey, her son, told STV News from the resort: "We've had no contact with the police. We have not been in contact with them at all. The hotel has just been protecting their reputation. They seem to be hiding from us.

"We're just being left in limbo. We're just beginning to think something untoward has happened. I don't understand how a 77-year-old lady can just vanish off the face of the earth in a five-star resort."

Mrs Howard, a widow, and her family embarked on a break but in less than 12 hours after arriving she vanished. Hotel security has no record of her leaving the premises.

A spokesman for Thomas Cook, which sold the package holiday to the family, said the company was doing everything to support them. The travel agent said it has made arrangements for family members to stay in Cancun for as long as is necessary.

In addition to son Henry and his wife Glynnis, Mrs Howard was accompanied on the trip by her daughter Julia Brock.