Hundreds of Thomas Cook staff had an emotional reunion at a jobs fair, as they try to find work following the firm's collapse last month.

Former employees attended the hastily-arranged event at Manchester Airport to learn more about the redundancy packages, help and support available.

The event also provided former colleagues a chance to catch up and say goodbye, Manchester Evening News reports .

Britain's oldest travel agent went bust after mounting debts forced it into liquidation.

Thomas Cook's demise put 9,000 in the UK workers out of a job, and left 150,000 Brits stranded abroad.

There were tears, hugs and handshakes underneath the wings of Concorde, inside a huge hangar at the Runway Visitor Park this morning as former colleagues were reunited.

Matthew Taylor-Fray, 40, a cabin manager and staff trainer, worked for Thomas Cook for 20 years.

It was, he said, the only job he'd 'ever really had'.

"I'm devastated," Matthew said.

"It's been difficult seeing everybody here today.

"Some of them are in tears. Some of them are moving on already, but I don't feel like I can at the moment.

"This has been the only job I've ever had really and I'm incredibly grateful to have worked for Thomas Cook.

"It wasn't just a job, it was a way of life.

"That might seem as though I'm taking it too far. How can you talk about a large company like that, but we were like a huge family.

"Every single day since I've woken up and thought 'has this really happened?'.

"It's going to be really hard to go and work for someone else.

"I just don't know what I'm going to do."

Air hostess Lauren Mallea, 46, from Preston, found out the firm had gone under while on a Thomas Cook holiday in Egypt.

She was one of the 150,000 stranded tourists flown home in the UK's biggest ever peacetime repatriation.

Lauren worked for the firm for 20 years and 'loved her job', but now she's angry at the way staff have been treated.

"I got a WhatsApp meassge from a friend at 4am, turned on Sky News in the hotel room and there it was," she said.

"It wasn't a nice way to find out.

"I'm angry. It's the way we've been treated.

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