Italian health authorities suspect that salmonella poisoning at a luxury hotel on Lake Garda caused an outbreak of illness among 30 British tourists, one of whom has died.

Geoffrey Appleyard, 71, from Evesham in Hereford and Worcester, died while on holiday with his wife Jean, at the lakeside Grand Hotel Gardone. The kitchens of the four star hotel have been closed and the staff are being questioned, including cooks and waiters. Food samples have been taken by police for analysis.

Franco Mizzarro, the hotel manager, said Mr Appleyard may have died from a heart attack. But Mrs Appleyard said her husband had begun to feel ill soon after dinner last weekend. They had both eaten seafood risotto, but he had then eaten fish while she had a meat dish. Results of a post mortem are expected to be announced later today.

Mrs Appleyard said she had also been taken ill. Sixteen of the 30 British tourists subsequently taken ill on Monday and Tuesday are in hospital at Brescia, Gavardo and Desenzano. All are said to be in a stable condition. Doctors said the symptoms were dysentery, abdominal pain, nausea, high fever and vomiting.

Orietta Mizzaro, the manager's daughter, said that a local doctor had been called when Mr and Mrs Appleyard fell ill, and he had prescribed medication. However Mr Appleyard had taken a turn for the worse during the night and had been taken to hospital, where he died.

A number of the holidaymakers admitted to hospital have instructed the law firm Irwin Mitchell. A spokesman said today that legal action would almost certainly be launched.

Allister Stewart, 62, and his wife Elizabeth, 61, from Marlborough, Wiltshire, arrived at the Grand Hotel on June 17 and began to suffer with gastric symptoms within a few days.

The couple were admitted to hospital as their conditions deteriorated and are awaiting test results, although they have been told they are likely to have been contaminated with salmonella.

“Both my wife and I have been extremely ill and we are awaiting the results of further tests," said Mr Steward, in a statement issued by Irwin Mitchell.

“We are very concerned that we could be suffering from salmonella and we have now been told that the hotel has had to close their kitchen. While we were at the hotel ambulances were coming and going.”

Clive Garner, Irwin Mitchell’s head of travel law, said: "From what we know so far it looks like there has been a major breakdown in health and hygiene measures leading to a large scale outbreak of illness. Questions will have to be answered by the hotel management and the tour operators using the hotel, including Thomson's, as to how this has been allowed to happen. Legal proceedings are highly likely to follow."

Mr Garner added that up to 40 per cent of the firm's clients who sued after food poisoning reported suffering long-term side effects which damaged their health.

The elegant Grand Hotel Gardone, built at the end of the nineteenth century, has in the past had Sir Winston Churchill, the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini and the poet Gabriele D'Annunzio as guests. Churchill painted views of the lake, and fished in it. It has been restored, and in 1986 was listed as an Italian "building of historical importance".

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