British tourists were evacuated from Kenya on Thursday and Friday after the Foreign Office issued a warning about a terror threat in the region. 

Hundreds of tourists were flown back to the U.K. on chartered flights from the Kenyan coast, The Telegraph reported. 

The Foreign Office told the vacationers that they should pack up their belongings and travel to the airport in convoys wih armed guards. The travel companies Thomson and First Choice said they were canceling flights to Mombasa until October, if not later.

Up to 500 tourists were affected by the terror threats. Half were forced to leave Thursday from the airport in Mombasa, Kenya's main city on the coast. The rest were scheduled to leave Friday. 

On Wednesday, Britain warned that tourists should not travel to Mombasa city or to its beaches in the north because of the threat of terrorism. Tourists currently in the area were told to leave immediately. 

Andy and Irene Coughlan from Swansea were on vacation in Kenya to celebrate Irene Coughlan's breast cancer going into remission. 

    "We're absolutely devastated," Mr. Coughlan, 53, said about the evacuation. "Ren had been seriously ill for a long time, and this was the first time after all the chemo that she was ready to travel."

    Irene Coughlan said she was looking forward to going on a safari and can't believe that she has to go back home so soon. 

    "I can't believe it's happening. I've been looking forward to this holiday for such a long time," she said. 

    The couple and other tourists were staying at a hotel outside of the Foreign Office's alert zone on Diani beach, which is an hour south of Mombasa. 

    The Foreign Office warned that the road connecting the resorts to the south of Mombasa to the airport is not safe. 

    "As a result of the change in FCO advice, the decision has been taken to cancel all our outbound flights to Mombasa, Kenya, up to and including Oct. 31. As a precautionary measure, we have also taken the decision to repatriate all customers currently on holiday in Kenya back to the UK tonight and tomorrow morning," said a spokesperson for TUI Travel, which owns Thomson and First Choice. 

    Andy Coughlan said he doesn't feel like he's in harms way. 

    "There's no sense whatsoever that this is a dangerous place," he said. "All the Kenyans have been fantastic. When all the tourists are gone, how are they going to earn their living?"

    The Kenyan government criticized the British travel warning, calling it "an unfriendly act" that "plays to the whims" of terrorists by "causing fear and panic".

    Tourism is a big source of revenue for Kenya with tourism providing 12.5 percent of the country's GDP. 

    Kenya has been considered a hotspot for terrorism since 70 people died in an attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September at the hands of al-Shabaab, an al-Qaeda affiliate. 

    Since the attack in September, there have been small grenade and bomb attacks on buses, churches and at a beach.