MEMBERS of a tourist group from Shanghai who were stranded in Rome at the start of their European holiday after their passports were stolen have now received temporary identification documents.

The tourists’ passports were being kept together in a case left on their bus.

The case and other luggage was stolen from the bus when it was left unattended.

The 13-day tour group, with 16 tourists and a guide, was organized by Shanghai-based online travel agency Ctrip.

The firm said it was com­municating with the tourists to work out resolutions for the rest of the journey as well as compensation.

The tour group was sched­uled to travel through Italy, Switzerland and France.

The group left Shanghai on Saturday night and arrived in Rome on Sunday.

“As there was a lot of walk­ing, we only took cash and bank cards with us when off the coach, while the rest of the luggage was all left on the ve­hicle,” said Cai Ying, one of the tourists in the group.

According to a report in Shanghai Morning Post, the tourists were told to gather at Piazza Venezia at 5:20pm to be informed by their driver of the theft.

Cai was reported to have said the driver claimed he had left the coach for an hour to eat. The driver was a temporary employee, according to the report, and was later replaced with another driver by the local travel agency.

The tour group was scheduled to go to Florence on Monday but had to stay in Rome an extra day for temporary identifica­tion documents to be prepared by the Chinese Embassy, the company said.

Ctrip denied that the driver who had left the coach to eat was a temporary employee and added that the vehicle was left in a proper parking lot.

The company added this was the first time it had encoun­tered such incident.

Ctrip said it would give 1,300 euros (US$1,440) in cash to every tourist in the group to cover their expenses in Europe during the rest of their journey.