London 2017 hit by serious sickness bug which has ripped through one of the official team hotels

LONDON 2017 has been struck with a serious sickness bug which has ripped through one of the official team hotels.

At least two leading medal contenders were forced to pull out of their races on Monday night after they went down with gastroenteritis.

And World Championship organisers have been forced to call in Public Health England to help them control the outbreak which has hit several athletes and officials.

Leading Irish hope Thomas Barr was unable to take part in his 400 metres hurdles semi-final after falling ill over the weekend.

And Botswana’s gold medal hope Isaac Makwala was stopped from taking part in the 400m final last night after he was sick.

Now officials are desperately trying to work with team managers and doctors in an attempt to contain the spread of the bug to other athletes.

Of big concern will be if any affected people were able to use the shared warm-up facilities outside the London Stadium, spreading germs when they were unaware they had them.

A statement from the World Championships organising committee said: “There have been a number of cases of gastroenteritis reported by team members residing within one of the official team hotels for the World Championships.

“Those affected have been supported by both team and LOC medical staff, in addition we have been working with Public Health England to ensure the situation is managed and contained.

“As a result, further advice and guidelines have been issued to team doctors and support staff – standard procedure for such an occurrence where a number of teams are occupying championship accommodation.”

It is suspected many of those who got the runs at the Tower Hotel on London’s Tower Bridge have the bug.