British trio admit they didn't go to Syria after boozy boat mix-up

Three British clubbers who said they had inadvertently boarded a boat to Syria after a boozy night out in Ayia Napa have admitted they fabricated the whole story.

Lewis Ellis, Alex McCormick and James Wallman claimed they became confused after partying until 7.30am in the Cypriot resort town and mistook the vessel for a dolphin-watching tour.

They claimed they had booked to go on the tourist attraction later that morning but had left their tickets at their flat. Rather than get them, the group "blagged" their way onto a "random boat", Ellis told news.com.au.

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"Everyone was foreign and it was pretty much halfway out from the island when we asked, 'How come we're so far away from land?'" he claimed.

The men said they arrived in the Syrian city of Tartus, 50 miles from the major battleground of Homs, and were met by baffled Russian officers, who quickly whisked them away for questioning.

"Eventually we found a translator and when we told him, he just fell about laughing," McCormick claimed. "We hung round in their quarters and they took pictures of us before we could get the boat back."

However, Ellis let slip on his Facebook page that the whole thing was a lie. "Hahaha what a prank," he wrote. Asked by a friend if he had actually boarded the wrong boat or not, he replied: "Naaa we just made it up for fun."